‘Dead’ drug smuggler held by cops

The special cell of Delhi police has arrested a notorious drug supplier, Islamuddin Ansari, who was believed to be dead, and recovered 2 kg of fine quality heroin worth over Rs 8 crore in the international market. Ansari (60) was arrested by a special cell team from a dhaba on NH-24 in Rampur (UP) on August 20, said DCP (special cell) Sanjiv Yadav. During the trial of a narcotics case registered against Ansari with the Narcotics branch, Delhi his present wife Ms Salma Begum had moved an application before the court in 2012 stating that her husband had died on March 14, 2012. She had also submitted a death certificate issued by the municipal corporation of Meerut.

The trial was stopped and the case file was consigned to records due to this development, said the officer.

However, special cell officials received information that Ansari was not dead and that he had got a fake death certificate submitted before the court. He was also learnt to be active in drug trafficking in Delhi and adjoining areas.

Ansari was already convicted in two cases under the NDPS Act and during pendency of trial of the third case, he was apprehensive of being convicted again and had thus planned to fake his own death, said DCP Yadav. After ensuring that the records showed that he was dead, Ansari changed his name to Wahid and shifted to Ghaziabad. He started living a new life and enforcement agencies could not trace any fresh criminal records of him. However, he was still popular as Islam in crime circles, which tipped off the police that he had started drug trafficking again.