Druglord Millionaire

ATS nabs former Narcotics Bureau chief, who was peddling heroin worth a crore

Druglord Millionaire

ATS nabs former Narcotics Bureau chief, who was peddling heroin worth a crore

Deputy Director of Enforcement Directorate (ED), Kochi, Saji Mohan was confident that his drug-selling racket would never be busted. However, he discounted the age-old saying that crime never pays. Saji had been peddling high-quality heroin for the past few years with the help of his key associates Vicky Oberoi and Rajesh Kumar, a former Haryana police constable.

However, Saji was unaware that Oberoi and Kumar had been arrested by the ATS on January 17 with nearly 1.8 kg of heroin at Oshiwara. The ATS then laid a fool-proof plan to trap the former narcotics chief and he took the bait.

"We asked Oberoi to call Saji and everything fell in place," said a senior ATS officer. For the next three days, Oberoi made several calls to Saji complaining about the quality of heroin supplied to clients in Mumbai. All the conversations were recorded to present a water-tight case.

Oberoi, at the behest of ATS sleuths, finally made a desperate call asking Saji to come to Mumbai with fresh stock and also collect the payments.

The veterinarian-turned-IPS officer was led to believe that there was a high demand for drugs in Mumbai post the 26/11 terror attacks.

Saji, a 1995-batch IPS officer now posted in Kochi, took the bait and flew into Mumbai on Saturday. He was arrested with 12 kg of high-quality Afghani heroin (worth approx Rs 96 lakh) from Classique Club at Andheri, in the wee hours of the morning.

"We are checking all possible angles, including terror,'' said Additional Commissioner of Police Param Bir Singh.

The cops found that Saji had collected about 50 kg of heroin from Baljinder Singh in 2006. Singh, who is serving a prison term, was a key buyer of heroin from Pakistan, trafficked through Kashmir with the help of militants.

Saji, who belonged to the Jammu & Kashmir cadre, was posted as Special Superintendent of Police at Doda in 2002, where he contacted Singh.

He continued to cultivate Singh even after he was posted as joint director Narcotic Control Bureau at Chandigarh before arresting him in October 2006.

Seized drug consignments
2006: 282 kg charas, 500 kg ganja, 13 kg brown sugar, 3 kg cocaine
2007: 8 kg heroin, 2 masculine, 12 kg brown sugar, (Value in international market Rs 150 crore)