A 32-year-old businessman who holds an MBA degree from Indian School of Business Management (ISBM), Hyderabad has been arrested by the Crime Branch here with 8 kilos of heroin worth Rs 25 crore.
“Anumulagundam Soma Shekhar (32) who is a resident of Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh was arrested from near Nizamuddin Railway Station on Thursday following a tip-off. He is an operative of international drug trafficking module. So far we have recovered 29 kilos of heroine from the arrested members of this module, the total cost of which is around Rs 100 crore,” said Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime) Ravindra Yadav.
During interrogation, Shekhar revealed that he is married and runs a stone crusher in Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh. His father was a senior official at an Italian-based cement manufacturing unit in Cuddapah, Andhra Pradesh. Shekhar completed his MBA from Indian School of Business Management (ISBM) Hyderabad in the year 2006-2007.
After suffering losses in his businesses, in 2008, he came in contact with one NRI called Rajni who was living in Kuwait who lured him into drug trafficking, and proposed he could bring heroin from Srinagar (J&K). He would pay him Rs 1 lakh per kilo apart from travel expenses, police said.
Shekhar then went to Srinagar via Delhi last month to recce the route and to meet the supplier Muneer, a contact of Rajni. Ten days back, he went to Srinagar via Delhi and carried 2 kilos of heroin from Muneer and supplied the same to contacts of Rajni in Hyderabad.
“He made another trip to Srinagar and took 8 kilos of heroin from Muneer on Wednesday. He took a train from Jammu to Delhi but alighted at Ghaziabad. On Thursday while he was going to Nizamuddin Railway Station with the stash, he was caught red-handed,” said Yadav. During further interrogation, Shekhar revealed that this drug cartel had its tentacles spread to J&K, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sri lanka and the Gulf countries (Middle East).
Further investigation is in progress. Efforts continue to break the entire chain of source and suppliers in J&K, Hyderabad and other places, police said.