JAMMU: The Anti Narcotics Task Force (ANTF) on Monday froze five bank accounts amounting to over Rs 54.27 lakh of a drug cartel in Jammu and Kashmir, officials said.
“We have got five bank accounts frozen of a drug cartel in Kashmir. The head of this cartel is Masood Ahmed Dar of Bijbehara of Anantnag,” Superintendent of Police (ANTF) Jammu Vinay Sharma told reporters here.
Three cases have been registered against him, he said.
“The total amount of these accounts is Rs 54.27 lakh. All the amount has been proven to be proceeds of the narcotics,” he said.
These orders are a first of its kind in which bank accounts have been frozen by the competent authority, Sharma said.
The process involves proving such accounts to be proceeds of narcotics and the case is heard by Foreign Exchange Manipulation Act (SAFMA) which is the competent authority, he said.
The case, after full investigation, had gone to the SAFMA which had given orders to freeze the bank accounts, the SP said.
Investigating Officer Parvez Sajjad proved beyond reasonable doubts that all such money is the proceeds of narcotics and the competent authority confirmed the freezing orders of all the accounts, the SP added.
“We have arrested two big suppliers — Salman Khan and Amit Saxena of Delhi and Jehangir of Kashmir,” he said.
While Salman and Amit were pumping pharmaceutical drugs into Kashmir, Jehangir was supplying narcotics to rest of the India from Kashmir,” he said.
Tightening the noose against drug dealers in Jammu and Kashmir, it is the first time that five such bank accounts have been frozen by the ANTF, which were directly linked with the drug cartels of Kashmir, he said.
This cartel had been running an illicit trade by supplying hashish from Kashmir valley to other parts of the country and also supplying and distributing psychotropic drugs in the union territory, he added.
The ANTF is investigating all aspects of money transactions, including hawala, which cannot be ruled out at this stage, he said.
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