NIA court orders property attachment in 2019 narco-terror case involving Khalistani operatives

New Delhi, Aug 31 (IANS) A Special NIA Court (SAS Nagar) Mohali has ordered the attachment of property of a key accused in a 2019 narco-terror case involving the banned Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF). 

The official said on Thursday that immovable property, which will be attached, belongs to a charge-sheeted accused Varinder Singh Chahal. The property, measuring 24 kanals, 14 marlas and four Sarsai, is located in village Devidaspura of district Amritsar Rural (Punjab). It has been ordered to be attached under section 33 (1) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

Initially, the Punjab Police lodged an FIR in this respect on May 31, 2019. Later, the probe was taken over by the NIA on January 22, 2020.

In the case, 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. 

The NIA probe revealed that Chahal was a close associate of a Dubai-based drug smuggler and money launderer, Jasmeet Singh Hakimzada, and also of Pakistan-based self-styled Chief of KLF, Harmeet Singh alias PhD. 

"Chahal was engaged in the collection of heroin consignments from Kashmiri drug dealers on the directions of Hakimzada and PhD, 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," said the official. 

The NIA investigation showed that the narco-terror network being promoted by Hakimzada and PhD was widespread and involved drug smugglers/terror operatives and hawala operatives based in Punjab, J&K and Delhi.  

The NIA established the role of Harmeet Singh alias PhD in this narco-terror network and has found that he was using the money to strengthen and expand KLF 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 promotion of narco-terror activities internationally and has been involved in smuggling of heroin and psychotropic substances around the world. The US Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has imposed financial sanctions against him by declaring him a ‘Significant Foreign Narcotics Trafficker’.