CHANDIGARH, Aug 31: An another success of its investigation into the Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF) narco-terror case, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has got the property attachment order of a key accused in a 2019 case of seizure of heroin and drug money from a special court in Punjab’s Mohali. The order was issued on Wednesday with the Special Court at SAS Nagar in Mohali ordering the attachment of the property of chargesheeted accused Varinder Singh Chahal.
The immovable property, measuring 24 kanals, 14 marlas and 04 sarsai, is located in village Devidaspura of district Amritsar Rural (Punjab). The court has ordered to attach the property under section 33 (1) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967. The case was registered by the NIA on January 22, 2020, based on the original First Information Report (FIR) dated May 31, 2019, when 500 grams of heroin and Rs 1,20,000 as drug money was seized from an accused identified as Jagbir Singh Samra, along with two others, namely Varinder Chahal and Harpreet Singh alias Happy. Subsequent investigations in the case revealed that Varinder Chahal was a close associate of an international Dubai-based drug smuggler and money launderer, Jasmeet Singh Hakimzada, and also of Pakistan-based self-styled Chief of KLF, Harmeet Singh alias Ph.D. “Varinder Singh Chahal was engaged in the collection of heroin consignments from Kashmiri drug dealers on the directions of Hakimzada and Ph.D, as part of a KLF narco terror module. The Narco-terror network of KLF, a proscribed terrorist organisation, was being operated by these terrorists through India-based drug smugglers,” the NIA investigations revealed. NIA investigations in the case showed that the narco-terror network being promoted by Hakimzada and Ph.D. was widespread and involved drug smugglers terror operatives and Hawala operatives based in Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir and Delhi.
The NIA has established the role of Harmeet Singh alias PhD in this narco-terror network and has found that PhD was using the money to strengthen and expand KLF’s activities in India and to radicalise vulnerable youth to spread terror as part of the outfit’s agenda to promote terror and violence related activities in India. The other mastermind, Hakimzada, has been engaged in the promotion of narco-terror activities internationally and has been involved in the smuggling of heroin and psychotropic substances around the world, said the agency. “The US Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has imposed financial sanctions against him by declaring him as a ‘Significant Foreign Narcotics Trafficker’,” said the NIA. As per the anti-terror agency, yesterday’s court orders come as a major fillip for NIA’s efforts to dismantle the narco-terror network of these drug smugglers and terrorists in India. (Agencies)
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