Yemeni national Al Sayaghi Abdulelah Abdullah Ahmed (29) was arrested on March 22. A Yemeni national who had lost both his legs “in an incident of violence” and a banned plant with leaves that “resemble chai patti (tea leaves)” are at the centre of an ongoing probe by the Pune City police that has now led to the arrest of a grocery shop owner.
On Wednesday, the police’s Anti Narcotics Cell (ANC) arrested the shop owner, identified as Lakshman Polaram Sirvi (34), in a raid conducted at his shop in Kondhwa. Sirvi (34) hails from Jodhpur in Rajasthan, the police said.
The action came a fortnight after the ANC arrested the Yemeni national, identified as Al Sayaghi Abdulelah Abdullah Ahmed (29), on March 22. The police had also raided Ahmed’s home in a residential society in Kondhwa and recovered around 8.4 kg of Khat, or “Catha Edulis”, valued at Rs 8.7 lakh in illegal markets — the first such seizure in the city.
Khat is a flowering plant mainly found in the African region and Yemen. It contains a stimulant, and is mainly consumed by chewing its dried leaves. Tagged as a “Drug of Abuse” by the WHO in 1980, it was banned in India in 2017 and brought under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act in 2018.
Speaking to The Indian Express, Senior Police Inspector Vinayak Gaikwad of the ANC said Ahmed became a Khat trafficker in Pune after arriving in India about six years ago.
“Our probe revealed that the accused had lost both of his legs in an incident of violence in Yemen. He came to India along with his wife on a commercial visa. He claimed to be in the business of cosmetics. But later, he got into the smuggling of Khat for earning money,” said Gaikwad.
“It was learnt that initially, he was providing help to Yemen nationals visiting a hospital in Pune for treatment. Through some of them, he developed contacts with those smuggling Khat and other banned products. His contacts smuggled the plant to Pune by flight. He collected the consignments at the airport and sold them to his customers in the city, mainly foreigners,” said Gaikwad.
During the raid at Ahmed’s house in a residential society in Kondhwa, the police recovered Khat recovered in three forms — dried leaves, powder of dried leaves and stem that was not dried. Indian and foreign currency, along with an electronic weighing machine was also recovered.
A FIR against the accused was lodged at the Kondhwa police station under sections of the NDPS Act. “The visa and passports of the Yemeni accused and his wife had expired and both had applied for its renewal,” Gaikwad said.
Police officers say Khat “can be easily smuggled on flights as it resembles chai patti (tea leaves)”. The police are also probing whether the accused procured the seized contraband through other sources.
The other arrested accused, Sirvi, came on the ANC’s radar after they found that Ahmed was selling Khat and banned foreign cigarettes to a grocery shop owner.
“Sirvi came to Pune about six years before. He started a grocery shop. He started selling banned drugs and cigarettes that he used to get from the Yemen national we had arrested. He has been booked under sections of the NDPS Act and COPTA (Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Prohibition Act). Further investigation is on,” said Gaikwad.
Following the raid at Sirvi’s shop, based on a tip-off from Police Naik Vishal Shinde, the police seized 1.42 kg of Khat worth Rs 1.13 lakh and 886 packets of banned foreign cigarettes — mainly manufactured in Yemen and estimated at Rs 4.32 lakh.