Mundra Port heroin haul: NIA court rejects Chennai woman's bail plea

A special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court on Tuesday rejected the bail application of a Chennai woman who is behind bars in connection with the seizure of 3,000 kg of heroin worth over Rs 21,000 crore at Mundra port in September.

The special court, while denying the bail, held that prima facie she "appeared to have been involved in a grave and serious offence having far-reaching implications."

The special judge Subhada Krishnakant Baxi rejected the bail plea of Govindaraju Durga Purna Vaisali, a resident of Chennai, who is among the eight accused, including her husband Machavaram Sudhakar arrested in this case till date. Baxi observed in the order, "in the opinion of this Court, the prima facie involvement and role of the present applicant-accused in committing the alleged offence, is clearly established. The present applicant having conspired with other co-accused, prima facie appears to have been involved in a grave and serious offence having far-reaching implications."

Read | Mundra heroin seizure: NIA seizes talc mixed with drugs

The Chennai couple was the first set of accused to be arrested by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), which busted the smuggling racket at Mundra port in September. Later, the central government transferred the investigation to the NIA. So far, eight accused have been arrested in this case.

DRI had found that Vaisali and Sudhakar had imported the consignment in the guise of talc power through their firm Aashi Trading Company from Afghanistan. They had registered their firm in Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh allegedly to dodge suspicion. Vaisali's name is registered in the papers as its proprietor. In her bail plea, she stated that there was no direct evidence against her, nor had the NIA discovered or recovered "any incriminating material/documents, money trail etc."

She also said that NIA hasn't been able to find a person named Amit "who is more actively involved and instrumental in commission of the present offence." She stated that her husband had told the name of Amit during their interrogation "but to her surprise," he hasn't been arrested by the NIA.

Special Prosecutor Amit Nair, representing NIA, argued that Vaisali had "full knowledge of routine affairs of her firm Aashi Trading Company, and therefore, she had absolutely full knowledge of the contents of the imported illegal consignments." The NIA court order has quoted Nair as arguing, "...based on pria facie true evidences collected by the DRI and NIA, the present applicant-accused was found to be an active member of international drug cartel, who having connived with her husband accused-1 in furtherance of a larger conspiracy hatched with other co-accused, has been involved in a commission of the present offence."

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