NCB sleuths jump from first floor to nab fleeing drug peddler

Following a tip-off, a NCB team, carried out surveillance and raided the premises in the early hours of Sunday and as Salim Langda vaulted out to escape, he was caught by the sleuths who jumped down after him.

Mumbai: In a daring operation, NCB sleuths jumped from the first floor of a building to nab a fleeing drug peddler who had leapt out to evade arrest, officials said on Sunday.

The culprit was identified as Samir Mukhtar Sayyed alias Salim Langda who was operating from a premise in Jogeshwari east suburb.

Following a tip-off, an NCB team carried out surveillance and raided the premises in the early hours of Sunday and as Salim Langda vaulted out to escape, he was caught by the sleuths who jumped down after him.

The NCB also nabbed two of his associates, Zakir Sayyed alias Zakir Takla and M.A. Shamshuddin Shaikh, plus effecting a total seizure of 1.20 kg of charas and mephedrone and cash of Rs 17.50 lakh, said NCB Zonal Director Sameer Wankhede.

Wankhede said that Salim Langda is a specially challenged person who took advantage of his condition to run a drug cartel and was wanted for a previous NCB drugs seizure case of 15.10 kg charas, and Rs 4.40 lakh in which five others were arrested.

"We had received several complaints from the residents of Jogeshwari east about Salim Langda's illegal drug activities, hiring criminals, and involving children in the narcotics trafficking," he said on the latest cleanup drive in the western suburbs of Mumbai.

Similarly, Zakir Takla is a known history-sheeter booked by Mumbai Police's Anti-Narcotics Cell in cases under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act in 2010 and 2016.

In a rich haul earlier this year, the NCB seized 2 kg mephedrone, Rs 1.15 lakh cash plus a huge quantity of foreign currencies, two luxury cars and arrested Zakir Takla and his three associates - Shahrukh Khan, Shadab Shaikh and Ajaz Khan - in that case.

IANS