Kerala IPS officer gets 15 years in jail for drug trafficking

Kerala IPS officer gets 15 years in jail for drug trafficking
Saji Mohan, a former zonal director with the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) and joint director of the Enforcement Directorate (ED), was arrested in January 2009 on charges of possession of drugs and conspiracy to smuggle them.

Mumbai: A special court on Monday convicted former IPS officer Saji Mohan for illegally possessing and smuggling drugs, sentencing him to 15 years in jail. Mohan hails from Kalanjoor in Pathanamthitta district of Kerala and belongs to the 1995 Jammu-Kashmir cadre.

The special Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) court also convicted a Haryana Police constable, Rajesh Kumar Kataria, in the 2009 case and awarded him 10-year imprisonment.

Kataria was Mohan's driver when the offence was committed.

Mohan, a former zonal director with the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) and joint director of the Enforcement Directorate (ED), and Kataria were arrested here in January 2009 on charges of possession of drugs and conspiracy to smuggle them.

Mohan was arrested two weeks after he took charge as Deputy Director of ED in Ernakulam.

The duo was charged with criminal conspiracy and also under the provisions of the NDPS Act.

During the trial, the prosecution had examined 40 witnesses and also relied on four telephonic conversations between Mohan and members of a drug cartel.

Maharashtra's Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) had recovered from Mohan 12 kilograms of pure heroin allegedly smuggled from across the border via Jammu and Kashmir.

According to the ATS, Mohan, during his tenure as the NCB zonal director at Chandigarh, would steal more than 50 per cent of the drugs consignments seized by the bureau.

The IPS officer would then smuggle the contraband to drug peddlers in various cities, including Mumbai, the ATS said.

Kataria, as Mohan's driver, was part of the drug smuggling activity, it said.

Jailed in 2014 for embezzlement

Saji Mohan was sentenced in 2014 by the Chandigarh court for 5 years of imprisonment in another case and is currently in Chandigarh prison.

In 2014, he was jailed in a 13.81-lakh embezzlement case. He was convicted under section 120B of IPC and under the provisions of Prevention of corruption Act (PCA). Court has also slapped a fine of Rs 18000 to the dismissed cop.

The court had also convicted his close associate and former superintendent of NCB Chandigarh, Balwinder Singh.

Mohan had embezzled cash from the storehouse of the NCB headquarters. It was stated that he had taken Rs 13.81 lakh from the seizure room in-charge to deposit it at the State Bank of India. However, Mohan had earlier denied taking any money and had claimed that he being an IPS officer would not carry money to the bank to get it deposited.

However, the complainant had deposed before the court that when the IPS officer was arrested from Mumbai and investigations were conducted at the NCB headquarters in Chandigarh, a receipt was found from the storehouse stating that Mohan had received the said amount, which was never deposited in the bank.

(With PTI inputs.)

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