The four foreigners are being sought in relation to the five AK 47s and 300 kg of heroin that were seized in March this year from a Sri Lankan fishing boar off Kerala court.
KOCHI: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) will approach the Interpol to trace four foreign nationals including a Pakistani in the case related to the seizure of 300kg of heroin and five AK 47s from a Sri Lankan fishing boat off Kerala coast in March this year. As part of it, the national agency has obtained an open arrest warrant against the four persons from the NIA court in Kochi.
The court has issued the warrant against Sri Lankan citizens Loku Yaddehige Nishantha, aka Suddu—the owner of Ravihanshi boat — Anju, Deepa and Pakistani national Haji Salim. Based on the open arrest warrant, NIA will approach Interpol so that the latter issues a blue notice against these persons to collect their whereabouts from their respective countries, according to sources.
An open arrest warrant issued by the courts doesn’t have a time limit and it will be valid till the accused is arrested. While in other arrest warrants, courts fix a deadline to arrest the person and produce him/her before it.
The NIA, during its investigation, found that Salim is the main supplier of drugs that originate from Afghanistan. These are routed to various countries through Pakistan. Salim is running a Karachi-based drug cartel that is involved in some major drugs seizure cases registered in India.
Similarly, Sri Lankan national Anju and Deepa are associated with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The duo conspired with Salim to raise funds for the revival of the terrorist organisation through the drug trade.
Earlier, NIA had sought information from Sri Lanka regarding the accused persons in the case invoking the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) signed between the two countries. On Wednesday, the NIA court sent three Sri Lankans including a former member of the LTTE intelligence wing to the custody of NIA for four days.
Janakadassppriya, Dadallage Nisanka and Satkunam, alias Subesan, were taken into custody for the second time after the NIA investigation revealed more information about their involvement in the case. Satkunam was the former LTTE intelligence wing member and while the other two were the crew of the fishing vessel. Currently, there are 15 accused persons in the case of whom four are still to be traced.