Rs 2000 crore drug-bust: Accused shipping company director held may have exported 300kg drugs

NAVI MUMBAI: The 11th accused in the Rs 2,000 crore drug bust case, director of a shipping company of Navi Mumbai, who was nabbed from on Sunday, may have shipped smuggled and exported over 300kg of ephedrine out of the country, claimed Thane police. Sushil Assikannan, the alleged accused, when nabbed, was dressed in an army uniform in Bengaluru. He was living in disguise in different South Indian cities.

Investigators informed that Assikannan was evading arrest by changing his attire in different parts of country right from Noida, Gurgaon to Bangalore, Chennai.

"We caught him on a road leading to Bangalore airport and it was suspected that he was planning to fly outside the country," said a senior police official. Assikannan was produced in the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act court of H M Patwardhan and has been remanded to police custody until August 31 for further investigations.

Revealing the catch, a polie officer said that it was on the basis of technical information that they caught him who was time to time seen fleeing one city after other.

Initial investigations revealed that the accused-Sushil Assikannan-had smuggled nearly 200 to 300 kilograms worth Rs 12 crore of ephedrine to different countries and is believed to have readied some of the consignment to the other parts of country including Gujarat. "IT is suspected that the transportation of ephedrine was solely managed and transported by Assikannan not just in country but out of country on several occasions," informed a police officer.

Assikanan's aide and manager - Hardip Gill - is already arrested in the case and presently lodged in Thane central Jain while Assikannanis was on run since his name cropped up in the investigations in April.

The special court of HM Patwwardhan had already rejected anticipatory bail Assikannan who was apprehending arrest.

He was produced in the NDPS court of HM Patwardhan and has been remanded to police custody till 31 August for further investigation.