Narco terror case: SC calls charges 'serious', denies bail plea of accused

The Supreme Court on Friday refused to hear the bail plea of an accused in an alleged narco terrorism case, relating to the seizure of 532 kilogram of heroin and 52 kilogram of mixed narcotics worth Rs 2,700 crore at Attari.

A bench comprising Justices M M Sundresh and Prashant Kumar Mishra refused to agree with the submissions of senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, appearing for one Tariq Ahmed Lone, that he should be granted bail as the contraband was not recovered from him.

The charges are very serious, the bench said while dismissing the bail plea.

The accused persons were booked and chargesheeted for allegedly trying to smuggle the contraband into India from Pakistan through Attari Integrated Check Post in 2019.

Lone, a resident of Kupwara in Jammu and Kashmir, moved the top court against the October 4, 2024 order of the Punjab and Haryana High Court denying him bail in the case.

A special NIA court in Mohali rejected his bail plea on February 11, 2021.

Gonsalves sought bail by further arguing the truck, in which the banned substances were purportedly smuggled in, and the godown did not belong to his client.

He said four co-accused persons were granted bail in the case.

The bench, however, granted liberty to Lone to move bail plea afresh in case of change of circumstances.

The NIA alleged that a Pakistani truck entered into the Indian territory on the evening of June 26, 2019 with a declared rock salt consignment imported by one Gurpinder Singh of M/s Kanishk Enterprises from Pakistan and exported by M/s Global Vision Impex.

On examination of consignment, 16 polypropylene bags were found to contain the whitish coloured powder/granules which was suspected to contain narcotic substance that is heroin, the NIA said.

Probe revealed that the consignment contained heroin and mixed narcotics worth thousands of crore in the international market.

Initially, Gurpinder Singh and Lone were arrested by the Department of Customs and subsequently the investigation was handed over to the NIA.

The NIA said it was a case of narco terrorism having national and international ramifications.

On the basis of investigation conducted by NIA, a chargesheet was filed against 11 persons with accused Gurpinder Singh having died.

The probe agency said an international drug racket, based in Pakistan and Afghanistan, was busted with the seizure of the huge cache of drugs.