NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday carried out raids at five premises across Delhi linked to businessman Harpreet Singh Talwar and his associates as part of a money laundering probe into the 2021 Mundra port drugs haul case, officials said.
Talwar, who runs popular nightclubs in Delhi, was arrested by the National Investigation Agency in August 2022 and was recently released on bail granted by the Gujarat High Court.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had registered a money laundering case in 2021, and the latest searches are being conducted based on new inputs, including allegations that narcotics trafficking proceeds were invested in some Delhi nightclubs.
In one of the largest drug seizures globally, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) seized 2,988.21 kg of Afghan-origin heroin from Mundra port in Gujarat’s Kutch district in September 2021. The consignment, valued at around Rs 21,000 crore in the international illegal drugs market, had arrived via Iran disguised as semi-processed talc stones.
The NIA, which separately investigated the case, stated in its chargesheet that proceeds from the drug network were used to fund activities of the Pakistan-based banned organisation Lashkar-e-Taiba. It described the consignment as a test case of smuggling a narcotics shipment into India under the cover of legal imports.
The case triggered a multi-agency probe involving the DRI, ED and NIA, with investigators tracing a network of shell companies and intermediaries across several states, including a Vijayawada-based firm whose owner was named as an accused in the NIA chargesheet.
The ED is examining the financial trail of the drug operation. Investigators are reviewing bank statements, property documents and digital records seized from the raided premises to establish possible links between the nightclub business and alleged laundering of drug money.
The agency is also looking into whether other individuals and entities in Delhi were used as conduits to layer and integrate proceeds of narcotics trade into the formal economy.
