NCB gets 2 days’ transit remand from Delhi court to take drug trafficker to Mumbai

A Delhi court on Tuesday allowed a two-day transit remand to NCB to take notorious drug trafficker Mohammad Salim Dola to Mumbai.

Judicial Magistrate Kautuk Bharadwaj allowed the Narcotic Control Bureau’s application seeking transit remand of Dola after he was produced at the magistrate’s residence late in the evening.

“Since the accused Mohammad Salim Dola is required to be produced before the sessions court in Mumbai where the main case is registered, two days’ transit remand is required,” the NCB’s remand paper said.

The “main case” stems from the NCB, Mumbai’s seizure of around 20 kg of Mephedrone from Dongri in a raid (succeeded by a follow-up raid at the same place) on June 9-10, 2023, following which a case was registered under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act provisions, and seven people were arrested.

Mephedrone is a designer or synthetic narcotic drug, which has various street names, such as Meow-Meow, Drone, M-Cat, White Magic, Rush and Bubbles.

The NCB had also identified Dola as the supplier of the drugs in the present case, and according to its remand paper, he had been absconding to date.

Court sources said that various allegations against Dola, including him being a close aide of international terrorist Dawood Ibrahim, were being thoroughly probed by the NCB.

Earlier in the day, in a major breakthrough, the NCB secured Dola’s return from Turkiye.

Dola (59) was arrested in Turkiye on the basis of an Interpol Red Notice issued on India’s request in March 2024. He was wanted in multiple narcotics trafficking cases in India and had been absconding from law enforcement agencies.

In a statement, the Ministry of Home Affairs said that Dola was brought from Turkiye under “Operation Global-Hunt”.

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He was taken into custody on his arrival at IGI Airport, New Delhi, early this morning by the NCB, it said.

The Interpol Red Notice database states that Dola, born on December 31, 1966, speaks Hindi and Marathi and faces multiple charges under the NDPS Act.

His two-decade-long criminal antecedents include direct involvement in cases involving multiple high-value seizures of heroin, charas, mephedrone, mandrax and methamphetamine in Maharashtra and Gujarat, the ministry said.