“Surojit Bapri and a 17-year-old, residing in a house in Ashram’s Siddharth Nagar, are expected to receive a large consignment of ganja there,” and added, “That house is a storehouse from which drugs are distributed to peddlers,” as per an informer.
Despite plain-clothes officers forming a perimeter around the house by 9:35 am to disrupt the drug operation, the suspects only arrived on a black motorcycle at 11:30 pm. During the subsequent arrests and seizures, the police discovered an unexpected twist: Surojit, 29, revealed that the narcotics ring was allegedly being operated by Sub-Inspector (SI) Naresh Kumar, one of their own.
Following Surojit’s revelation, the Delhi Police initiated a search for SI Kumar, who was previously posted with the Anti-Extortion and Kidnapping Cell of the Delhi Police Crime Branch but had since gone “missing.” The investigation uncovered that Kumar was allegedly the main conspirator in the drug syndicate.
The police had received a tip-off on January 2, 2024, which led to the formation of a team under Inspector Vishnu Dutt Tiwari to apprehend the suspected drug dealers. An informer and two team members were stationed at the entrance of the Siddharth Nagar colony to identify Surojit and the juvenile. When the suspects arrived at 11:30 pm, their identities were confirmed. Surojit attempted to lock the door but was intercepted by the police. The juvenile was also detained.
The police seized 35 kg of ganja from the house. During questioning, Surojit named Ravinder Kumar, 26, another member of the syndicate, who was later arrested with over 74 kg of ganja in his house. Ravinder’s interrogation led to Kanoon Shukla alias Kano, 28, who also implicated Ravi Shukla, a relative still on the run.
According to the police, both Surojit and Kanoon are originally from West Bengal but have lived in Delhi for the past five years. The two houses in Ashram were used as drug distribution points. A case under Sections 20 (punishment for production and sale of cannabis) and 29 (abetting or being a party to criminal conspiracy) of the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act was filed against the arrested individuals at the Sunlight Colony police station.
The subsequent interrogations revealed SI Kumar’s alleged involvement. The accused claimed that Kumar “procured ganja from Odisha and Northeast states” and “stored it in the Ashram houses, from where he sold it to customers in the city.” It was noted that the rent for the house where Surojit was arrested was paid by SI Kumar.
Attempts to contact SI Kumar’s unit head and visit his residence in Kalkaji yielded no results. Authorities suspect that SI Kumar may have fled to Nepal before moving to South Africa via Syria, although no concrete evidence supports this claim. The investigating officer stated, “The information that SI Kumar is in South Africa seems to be misleading because there is no evidence to support that.”
SI Kumar, who joined the Delhi Police in 1990 and spent ten years with the Crime Branch, has previously been involved in major drug busts. His colleagues expressed surprise at his alleged involvement in the current drug ring.
SI Kumar has filed two anticipatory bail pleas, one in February and another in early July, both of which were rejected. The police presented CCTV footage showing Kumar entering the Ashram house and call detail records indicating his communication with the arrested suspects. SI Kumar’s lawyer, Sunil Dalal, argued that the accusations might be linked to Kumar’s past conflicts with a member of the Anti-Narcotics Squad.
The Anti-Narcotics Squad hopes to question SI Kumar to uncover a larger drug network that may have international connections.
