The Mumbai Police are yet to receive a formal intimation from the Coast Guard on the registration of an FIR in connection with the seizure of heroin worth Rs. 600 crore off the Porbandar coast earlier this week.
Though the boat in which the consignment was purportedly being carried was intercepted by the Navy and the Coast Guard on the stretch of the Arabian Sea along Gujarat, jurisdiction rules are such that the case has to be registered in the Yellow Gate police station here.
However, senior police officers said that while the registration was imminent, they were not sure by when it would be done. This, they said, was because neither the Coast Guard nor any other agency had officially communicated the same to them till Saturday evening. “We are waiting for them to write to us. Once we receive the orders and other documents pertaining to the case, we will initiate the process,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Port Zone) Kiran Kumar Chauhan.
When the Coast Guard officials produced the eight alleged Pakistani nationals onboard the boat before a Gujarat Court on Friday, the Judicial Magistrate (First Class) Arvind Patel said the case was beyond the jurisdiction of the court as the boat was captured in international waters.
By rules, since the boat was captured from the international waters, the jurisdiction lies with the Yellow Gate police station in Mumbai for cases of the west coast.
