Court extends judicial custody of hawala kingpin Naresh Jain in drugs case

A Delhi court today extended by six days the judicial custody of alleged hawala kingpin Naresh Kumar Jain for his reported complicity in international drug trafficking trade.

Additional sessions judge Sanjiv Jain sent Jain to jail till March 31 after he was produced by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on completion of his judicial custody. 

Earlier, the court had said there was "sufficient material" to arrest Jain for his alleged complicity in international drug trafficking trade.

Besides NCB, ED has also filed a separate case against Jain under various provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) for his alleged hawala transactions relating to proceeds of drugs trade.

Jain was arrested by the NCB on December six last year for allegedly financing and transporting narcotic drugs. 

Jain, who used to run M/s Kumar Trading Company in Dubai, was arrested there as well after it came to light that sale proceeds of drugs, running into several crores of rupees, were credited in the firm's account, the ED had claimed.

The money was "transferred" to the account of the company from Europe, China and Africa, it said. 

The accused was also under the surveillance of US authorities which had confiscated USD 4.3 million from him in June last year, it claimed. 

The ED also alleged that the accused had financed persons involved in drug syndicate in India and abroad. He allegedly laundered money for global terrorist Dawood Ibrahim and financed narcotic cells, it said.