On a day the NCB gave clean chit to actor Shahrukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan, the Congress in a press conference accused the government of turning a blind eye to multiple drug hauls in Gujarat.
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Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera called Gujarat the “gateway of drugs”.
Mr. Khera said that since July 2017 till Thursday, there have been series of drug hauls from Gujarat ports. In the latest on May 26, 52 kg of cocaine was recovered from Mundra port, which is owned by Gautam Adani. There were hauls of similar scale from Pipavav port owned by Nikhil Gandhi, he said. He listed out at least six instances since 2017 of drug hauls from these two ports.
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The government, conceding that there is a pattern to these incidents in October 2021, had handed over the case to National Investigative Agency. Mr. Khera also said that in spite of government’s announcement in the same month, that the Mundra Port will not handle cargo from Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan, the Thursday recovery of 52 kg of cocaine worth ₹500 crores from the Mundra Port is said to have come from Iran.
Mr. Khera also accused the government of keeping mum on the issue. He asked, “How has Gujarat become the gateway of drugs to India even when our Prime Minister and Home Minister are both from Gujarat. And why are the two silent?”
Drugs aren’t traded at just a retail level, he said. “It is always a part of a larger global syndicate and these syndicates have active political patronage in whichever country they operate. We demand from the government answers on what is your blue print, what is your road map to burst this syndicate,” Mr. Khera said.