IPS officer held with heroin

Cop Was Trying To Sell Drugs Worth Rs 12 Cr In Andheri

Mateen Hafeez I TNN
Mumbai: The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) on Saturday afternoon arrested Saji Mohan, a senior IPS officer, on charges of drug trafficking when he was caught with 12 kg of heroin at Oshiwara in Andheri. Saji is a deputy director with the Enforcement Directorate in Kerala.

It is the first instance of an IPS officer falling into the drug net, and is deeply ironical as Saji was the man heading anti-drug trafficking activities over a swathe of northwest India for about two years when he was posted as the zonal director of the Narcotics Control Bureau in Chandigarh from 2006-08. Moreover, he had been conferred a bravery award in 1999.

Saji is accused of delivering 12 kg of heroin, which makes it a commercial quantity under the anti-narcotics law, worth over Rs 12 crore in the international market and collecting payment for selling an earlier consignment in Mumbai.

The 37-year-old IPS officer of the 1995 batch has been sent to police custody till January 30. He has been booked under sections 8(1)(c) and 21 of the Narcotic Drug and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. Under the stringent provisions of the law, he is unlikely to receive bail and, if convicted, will be in jail for at least 10 years.

Police said a trap was set for Saji and the ATS team arrested him around 2 pm after assistant inspector Sunil Mane got a tip-off that the officer would be making a delivery at Classique Club near Infiniti Mall. Besides the heroin, a mobile phone, some CDs and a laptop were recovered from him.

“On January 17, our teams arrested two person—Vicky Oberoi, a local fish vendor, and Haryana police constable Rajesh Kumar—in Mumbai and seized 1.8 kg heroin. They told us that a “senior officer’’ had given them the package with an instruction to peddle the drugs. During the probe we found that a police officer was involved,’’ said ATS chief Krish Pal Raghuvanshi.

Saji, who comes from Kochi in Kerala, had joined ED in the state as deputy director only two weeks ago. “He served in the Chandigarh NCB as zonal director during 2006-08. During this period, Saji and his team busted several drug rings. He used to show only a part of the haul as the seizure and, thus, managed to steal about 30-35 kg of heroin. Later, he planned to sell it through a constable and a Mumbai-based agent,’’ said an ATS officer.

The 12 kg of heroin seized in Mumbai is believed to be a part of the haul he had set aside illegally, said the officer.

When Saji Mohan was zonal director of the Narcotics Control Bureau in Chandigarh, his jurisdiction spread over Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. He is accused of illegally stealing parts of the narcotics haul he made then and trying to peddle them now. The 12 kg of heroin he was held with in Mumbai is believed to be part of the hoard.

“We are trying to establish if he sold the remaining heroin earlier or it has been kept mewhere. We have just got his remand and will try to find out where he hid the heroin after stealing it from the seized consignment in Chandigarh,’’ he added.

At the time of arrest, the senior IPS officer was entitled to a salary of Rs 71,000 per month. He had sought a transfer to the Kerala ED on December 31, 2008. “In most cases, zonal directors’ deputation period of two years is increased. However, he decided to take the transfer (to Kerala). We’ll need to examine why he did that,’’ a senior Chandigarh NCB officer told TOI.

Saji’s arrest has brought the functioning of the Chandigarh NCB under intense scrutiny. Immediately getting down to action, NCB authorities in New Delhi have decided to review cases settled and scrutinise drug seizures made during Saji’s 23-month tenure in the city. Chandigarh’s officiating zonal director Sandeep Mittal, who was in Delhi, has left for the Union Territory.

NCB director-general O P S Malik said: “We want to probe all cases that were cracked by sleuths under the leadership of Saji Mohan.’’

Saji, who did an animal husbandry and veterinary course from Jabalpur University, passed the civil services examination in his second attempt and was selected for the Jammu and Kashmir cadre. He worked in J&K till 2006, serving as the superintendent of police in Doda, before moving to the NCB on deputation.

Speaking to TOI, Saji’s father, Varghese Yohannan, a retired subedar major, said, “I don’t think my son will ever do this. It must have been planted on him. He was returning from Delhi after attending a week-long training on the new Prevention of Money Laundering Act.’’

The ATS is trying to establish if Saji had supplied drugs to rave party organisers or participants in Maharashtra. Asked if he had any “celebrity customers’’ in Mumbai, Raghuvanshi said it was too early to comment.

The Times of India, January 26, 2009