KOCHI: The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Tuesday informed the Ernakulam Additional Sessions Court that it will collect the details from the Indian Navy about the seizure of 2,525 kg methamphetamine (meth) off Kerala coast on May 13.
Meanwhile, the court granted the NCB five-day custody of suspected Pakistan national Zubair Derakhshandeh till May 27, a day after it denied the nod for the same saying the petition and affidavit filed by NCB did not contain details about the distance off the coast from where the drugs were seized from the vessel. The court had said the NCB documents also lacked clarification about Zubair’s nationality and had asked the bureau to file a fresh affidavit on Tuesday. However, NCB’s fresh petition did not mention the distance.
In its latest petition, the NCB said it was seeking Zubair’s custody for custodial interrogation only through which could the investigation officer ascertain the origin and source of the huge quantity of drugs seized, those involved in its trafficking and also the exact point where the Navy intercepted the ship with the contraband.
The NCB said it was duty-bound to carry out a probe when information about drug trafficking was received. “Denying the right of the investigation officer to conduct custodial interrogation in the light of technical grounds, particularly during the nascent stage of probe, causes serious damage to the investigation,” the NCB said in the petition.
Advocate C P Udayabhanu, representing NCB, said details about the distance will be collected from the Navy which had made the seizure before handing over the contraband and Zubair to the NCB in Kochi.
He said there were six crew members in the vessel which was close to sinking. Five of them managed to escape before the Navy intercepted them. Technical aspects, like whether the seizure was made in Indian territorial waters or International waters will be revealed after the investigation and will be included in the chargesheet, Udayabhanu said. He said Zubair had first claimed he was a Pakistani, but later said he was Iranian. This too will be confirmed during the probe, he said.
Zubair’s lawyer B A Aloor maintained that the seized vessel had been near Sri Lanka, not India. He said as per Section 188 of the CrPC, the case could not be probed or tried in India as the offence did not take place in Indian territorial waters.
After hearing both sides, Additional Sessions Judge K Sanil Kumar granted NCB Zubair’s custody saying the agency should be given the opportunity to conduct a probe and unearth the facts.
ZUBAIR’S CUSTODY GRANTED
The court granted the NCB five-day custody of suspected Pakistan national Zubair Derakhshandeh till May 27
Granted custody a day after the court denied nod for the same saying the petition and affidavit filed by NCB did not contain details about the distance off the coast from where the drugs were seized from the vessel.
In latest petition, the NCB said it was seeking Zubair’s custody for custodial interrogation