Himachal Pradesh Police has busted an interstate ‘Chitta’ (adulterated heroin) racket in Shimla, whose leader has been running this racket for the last 5-6 years under the guise of apple trade. The special thing is that the accused was running this business in such a clever and foolproof manner that the investigating agencies did not even get a clue about it.
According to the police, the accused used to take orders for drugs through WhatsApp group, after which the supply was started and the delivery was also done, but the person delivering and the person taking it were never able to meet each other.
The mastermind of the gang is named Shahi Mahatma (Shashi Negi), who was the only common link between the demand and supply chain of drugs. Luck favored him for a long time and he could not come under the radar of the police. But on September 19, luck left him, because on the same day the police seized a consignment of 465 grams of ‘Chitta’ from Kharapathar area of Shimla, which was the biggest consignment of drugs this year. And with the help of this, connecting the links, the police also reached Shashi Negi.
Giving information about this, Shimla SP Sanjeev Kumar Gandhi told PTI, ‘Accused Shahi Mahatma alias Shahi Mahatma of Mudasir Ahmed Mochi (who was arrested on September 19), resident of Bhatpura village in Kupwara district of Jammu and Kashmir. Links with Shashi Negi were discovered and the kingpin was arrested.
The police SP said that Shahi Mahatma and his 40 associates were supplying narcotics in Rohru, Jubbal-Kotkhai and Theog areas of Upper Shimla under the guise of apple business and they had links with Nigerian drug gangs in New Delhi and other gangs in Haryana. There were relations also.
SP Gandhi told PTI on Saturday that the accused also have links with the people of Kashmir. Explaining the modus operandi of the Shahi Mahatma gang, Gandhi said that it used to ensure that the drugs passed through four different hands before being delivered. So he hired different people to bring in the demand, supply the drugs and receive payment. Who never met each other.
Gandhi said that he himself never came in direct contact with any partner. After demand for drugs came through WhatsApp groups, the identity of the user of the drugs was verified, then the demand was sent to Shashi Negi, who also had another team to supply the drugs.
Gandhi said that he also had a special style of delivery. The delivery person would keep the drugs at a secluded place and make a video of that place and send it to the buyer, after which he would pick it up from there.
Police said that as far as the money is concerned, it passed through various bank accounts and reached Negi’s Dhan Lakshmi bank account in Solan. Gandhi said that the people whose accounts were used for these transactions never knew that it was drug money.
According to the police, in the last 15 months, transactions amounting to about Rs 2.5 to 3 crore were found in the bank accounts of the accused. Police said that before Shashi’s arrest, the police had registered five FIRs under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act against nine people involved in the drug gang. He said that till now the police has arrested 25 people of this gang.