Drugs factory busted; chemicals seized, kingpin held
State police chief Deepam Seth told reporters here on Tuesday that the raid was conducted by a joint team of the Kumaon unit of the STF's Anti-Narcotics Task Force and Pithoragarh, Champawat, and Udham Singh Nagar police.
In the raid carried out on Monday, the team seized a large consignment of banned 'precursor' chemicals used in making MDMA while Kunal Ram Kohli, the brain behind the factory on Sahni Nursery Tiraha, was arrested, the director general of police said.
He claimed the activities of the gang spread from Mumbai to Nepal.
As much as 126 litres of chemicals, 28 kg of powder, and 7.41 grams of prepared MDMA were seized from the factory, Seth said.
According to Senior Superintendent of Police of Uttarakhand STF, Navneet Singh Bhullar, two suspected drug smugglers were arrested on May 31 in Maharashtra's Thane with 11 grams of MDMA.
He said that during interrogation, the two revealed the presence of the MDMA factory, being run by Monu Gupta and Kunal Kohli in the Thal area of Pithoragarh district on the Uttarakhand-Nepal border.
On this information, Thane and Pithoragarh police raided the factory, being run under the guise of a poultry farm in Thal on June 26, from where they recovered 'precursor' chemicals.
Bhullar said that although the Thane police later arrested Monu Gupta, along with his two accomplices, Bhim Yadav and Aman Kohli from the Palia-Nepal border in Lakhimpur Kheri of Uttar Pradesh, Kunal Kohli remained at large, having fled to Nepal along with his accomplices -- Rahul Kumar and Vikram.
Police arrested Rahul Kumar's wife, Isha, on July 11 while she was about to dispose of 5.688 kg of MDMA worth Rs 10.23 crore into a canal on the instructions of her husband. During interrogation, she gave up her husband, who was arrested by Champawat police.
During interrogation, Aman Kohli told police that when his Pithoragarh factory was exposed, he shifted the operation to Nanakmatta.
Bhullar said action will also be taken against the companies from which the chemicals for MDMA were procured. The DGP has announced a reward of Rs 1 lakh to the police team involved in the action.
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