ATS picks up Mohan’s junior

“We are questioning Balwinder and trying to verify the claims made by Saji Mohan. We need to know if he was indeed hand-in-glove with Mohan and if he was an accomplice in sourcing drugs for Mohan,” said K P Raghuvanshi,acting Joint Commissioner of Police (ATS).

According to sources,Balwinder had been a close confidant of Saji Mohan,ever since the latter assumed the post of NCB zonal director in Chandigarh in February 2007. Balwinder has been serving in the NCB for around four years. While he was initially an intelligence officer,he was promoted to the rank of superintendent (second-in-command at the NCB,after Mohan) later.

The sources said Balwinder was a “front man” for Mohan in most of the NCB’s operations. “Balwinder was the man who used to put suspects’ mobile phones on electronic surveillance. In fact,the major heroin seizures,which NCB did under Saji Mohan’s tenure,were executed under the supervision of Balwinder,” said an NCB official.

It was Balwinder who had allegedly tried to strike deals with the kin of the accused caught for drug-trafficking on behalf of Mohan. In one such case that came to light on Wednesday,family members of a Samrala resident,Baljinder Singh,alleged that Balwinder had demanded Rs 1 crore from them to get Baljinder acquitted (see report on page 3).

Balwinder lives in Sector 37 of Chandigarh and,according to the sources,was close confidant of other NCB officials,particularly intelligence officer Ravi Kant Pawar and former superintendent O P Sharma,too. While Pawar was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation on graft charges,Sharma was transferred out of the NCB about two years ago.

Deputy Director General,NCB,Dr Ish Kumar did not confirm Balwinder’s arrest. He said they were keeping track of the entire situation.

Ex-NCB zonal director’s flip-flops in custody
With the former zonal director of NCB,Saji Mohan,changing his statement for the third time on Tuesday,the Maharashtra ATS hopes the questioning of his subordinate will give more insight into the case. In his latest statement,Saji Mohan has claimed that he took advantage of unclaimed drug seizures made by the Border Security Force (BSF) that were deposited with the NCB. Mohan had initially said he had stocked part of a November 2007 NCB seizure,but later changed his statement,claiming the source to be a Jammu and Kashmir-based smuggler. “He has changed his statements thrice. He now says he used to sneak a portion of drugs,which were essentially unclaimed seizures made by the BSF,at the porous borders. This stock was then seized and handed over to the NCB. He claims that he would take the drugs and replace the missing stock with lime. We are going to question some officials from the NCB today to verify this,” said Parambir Singh,Additional Commissioner of Police,ATS.