In September last year, Karthik Tangavel left his home in Cheetah Camp, Chembur, in hopes of finding a job in Malaysia.
In September last year, Karthik Tangavel left his home in Cheetah Camp, Chembur, in hopes of finding a job in Malaysia. But as soon as the 21-year-old reached the Kuala Lampur airport, he was arrested for allegedly carrying narcotics in his luggage.
Six months later, 26-year-old Mohammad Sharif was arrested by the Air Intelligence Unit of (AIU) of Mumbai Customs for carrying 25 kg of ketamine powder. Interestingly, Sharif is also a resident of Cheetah Camp. He was on his way to board a flight to Kuala Lampur via Singapore before he was arrested.
Both of them claimed that they were being framed as the drugs were given to them by a job agent.
The striking similarity in both cases has led Mumbai’s anti-narcotics agencies to believe that a new trend is emerging. The police believe that the drug mafia is luring gullible youngsters with promises of lucrative jobs abroad. The youngsters, who mostly belong to slum areas such as Cheetah Camp, are then made to take the contraband to foreign shores, particularly South East Asian countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia where stringent action is taken against people found in possession of drugs.
Sharif gave the Customs officials the number of a man — Salaam — who was helping him get a job in Malaysia and had also allegedly given him the drug consignment. Tangavel, in his statement to the Malaysian police last year, had also mentioned that one Salaam had given him the bag containing the narcotics.
A senior AIU official requesting anonymity said that the number Sharif had given was registered in Tangavel’s name. They then summoned his family for questioning and that’s when they learnt that he was in custody of the Malaysian police in connection with the drug smuggling case. That’s when Salaam’s involvement also came to the fore.
“We are inquiring if there is a pattern in the two cases,” said a senior official from the Anti-Narcotic Cell of the Mumbai police, who also received an application from the Tangavels to look into the matter.
According to Tangavel’s brother Suresh, Salaam had taken a few original documents under the pretext of getting his (Tangavel’s) passport made. He could have misused the documents to get a mobile number, he alleged.
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