ED arrests expelled DMK functionary in drugs-linked money laundering case

The Enforcement Directorate has arrested sacked DMK functionary Jaffer Sadiq at the Tihar Jail in connection with a drugs linked money laundering investigation, official sources said Friday.

The federal agency will soon take the 36-year-old to Chennai and produce him before a special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) seeking his remand for custodial interrogation, the sources said.

Sadiq was arrested by the ED on June 26 at the Tihar Jail where he is lodged in judicial custody in a NCB case. A production warrant is being sought from a Delhi court following which he is expected to be taken to Chennai where the ED case is lodged, they said.

The ED had earlier obtained the court's permission to question him in jail and he was taken into custody during this procedure.

He was first arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in March for his alleged involvement in the smuggling of about 3,500 kg of pseudoephedrine with a street value of more than Rs 2,000 crore.

The money laundering case stems from separate NCB and Customs department complaints filed against Sadiq and his partners on charges of indulging into "cross-border illegal trade of narcotics substances".

Sadiq, purportedly the mastermind behind an international drug trafficking syndicate, stands accused of smuggling pseudoephedrine camouflaged as health-mix powder and desiccated coconut to Australia and New Zealand, the ED had said.

He was expelled by the ruling DMK in February after his name and purported links to the drugs network were mentioned by the NCB.

Tamil Nadu Law Minister and DMK leader S Regupathy had asserted that his party had no links with Sadiq.