New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday declined to entertain a bail plea by an accused in an alleged narco-terrorism case, in connection with the seizure of 532 kilograms of heroin and 52 kilograms of mixed narcotics worth Rs 2,700 crore at Attari.
The matter came up before a bench comprising Justices M M Sundresh and Prashant Kumar Mishra. The bench noted that the charges against the petitioner are very serious.
Senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, appearing for one Tariq Ahmed Lone, contended that he should be granted bail as the contraband was not recovered from his client and pointed out that four co-accused persons were granted bail in the case.
However, the bench made it clear that it was not keen to agree with the submissions of the counsel. Lone, a resident of Kupwara in Jammu and Kashmir, challenged before the apex court an order passed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court in October 2024, declining to grant him bail in the case.
During the hearing today, Gonsalves argued that the truck, in which the banned substances were purportedly smuggled in, and the godown did not belong to his client. After hearing submissions, the bench decided to dismiss the bail plea. However, the top court granted liberty to the petitioner to move the bail plea afresh in case of a change of circumstances.
The accused persons were booked and charge-sheeted for allegedly trying to smuggle the contraband into India from Pakistan through the Attari Integrated Check Post in 2019. A special NIA court in Mohali rejected Lone’s bail plea in February 2021. The NIA alleged that a Pakistani truck entered the Indian territory on the evening of June 26, 2019, with a declared rock salt consignment imported by one Gurpinder Singh of M/s Kanishk Enterprises from Pakistan and exported by M/s Global Vision Impex. Initially, Gurpinder Singh and Lone were arrested by the Department of Customs and subsequently, the investigation was handed over to the NIA.
