In a shocking event, a mob of drug traffickers and their supporters blocked and attacked a team from the Office of Narcotics Control (OCN), injuring two, when they raided a location in Mumbai suburban Goregaon, authorities said. Monday.
The incident occurred late Sunday when the NCB team, led by Area Director Sameer Wankhede, was interrupted and blocked by a threatening mob of around five dozen people, including some drug dealers, when detectives were to conduct a search and seizure operation in the Jawahar Nagar area of the northwestern suburb of Mumbai.
When the NCB team seized a commercial quantity of 20 LSD smears from street vendor Kerry Kelvin Mendes, several of his accomplices who gathered there began abusing, pressuring and assaulting officials in an attempt to free Mendes.
“They also surrounded and damaged the official vehicle (NCB) and a pair of handcuffs. Their efforts were directed at freeing the defendants,” the NCB said.
The mob had surrounded the NCB team, but anti-drug agency personnel retaliated and thwarted the attackers’ attempts to free Mendes, while trying to calm them down.
In the process, two NCB officials were injured and transferred for treatment. In addition to Wankhede, the assault team consisted of Superintendent VV Singh, Investigative Officer Vishwanath Tiwari, Sepoys PS Reddy and PD More, and Driver Anil Mane.
A team from the Goregaon Police Station, who went there shortly after, arrested three people in the attack: Vipul K. Agre, 25, Yusuf A. Shaikh, 24, and Amin AL Shaikh, all local residents.
The police also assisted the NCB team in securing the defendant and the seized drugs and an FIR was registered against the trio of defendants, charging them under various sections of the Indian Penal Code.
The incident comes just 36 hours after the NCB made the high-profile arrests of television comedian Bharti Singh and her husband Harsh Limbachiya on Saturday and Sunday, as part of the ongoing investigation into several drug cases involving prominent figures from the glamor and Bollywood industry. Since then, the duo have obtained bail.
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