Businessman with J&K links held with Rs 25 cr heroin

NEW DELHI, Mar 29:

A 32-year-old businessman who holds an MBA degree from Indian School of Business Management (ISBM), Hyderabad, has been arrested by the Crime Branch here with 8 kg of heroin worth Rs 25 crore, police said today.
“Anumulagundam Soma Shekhar (32) who is a resident of Hyderabad, Andhra Pardesh was arrested from near Nizamuddin Railway Station on Thursday following a tip off. He is an operative of an international drug trafficking module.
“So far we have recovered 29 kg of heroin from the members of this module who have been arrested in the last couple of months the total cost of which is around 100 crore,” said Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime) Ravindra Yadav.
Shekhar, who runs a stone crusher in Chittoor district of Andhra Pardesh and whose father was a senior official at an Italian based cement manufacturing unit in Kaddapa, Andhra Pardesh has completed MBA from Indian School of Business Management (ISBM) Hyderabad in the year 2006-2007.
After suffering losses in his businesses, in 2008, he came in contact with one NRI called Rajni who was living in Kuwait who lured him into drug trafficking, and proposed that if he can bring heroin from Srinagar (J&K). He would pay him Rs one lakh per Kg apart from travel expenses, police said.
Shekhar then went to Srinagar via Delhi last month to reccee the route and to meet the supplier Muneer, a contact of Rajni. Ten days back, he went to Srinagar via Delhi and carried 2 kg heroin from Muneer and supplied the same to contacts of Rajni in Hyderabad.
“He made another trip to Srinagar and took 8 kg heroin from Muneer on Wednesday. He took train from Jammu to Delhi but alighted at Ghaziabad. On Thursday while he was going to Nizamuddin Railway Station with drugs, he was caught red-handed,” said Yadav.
During further interrogation, Shekhar has revealed that this module of drug traffickers is having network across J&K, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Gulf countries (Middle East) and is operating as an international racket.
Further investigation of the case is in progress. Efforts continue to apprehend the entire chain of source and suppliers in J&K, Hyderabad and other places, police said. (PTI)