TAINTED POLICE OFFICER ACCUSED OF FALSELY IMPLICATING NRI FAMILY

A Britain based Punjabi family on Wednesday accused tainted Indian
Police Service officer Shajji Mohan, who was arrested in Mumbai on
Sunday with 12 kg heroin, of falsely implicating them in more than a
drugs trafficking case.

Baljinder Singh, 53, his son Sukhjinder Singh, (both British
nationals), and Nigerian national John F. Kennedy were allegedly
caught with eight kilograms of heroin in 2007. They are lodged in
Burail jail here.

However, defence counsel Kuldeep Singh Chaudhary denied the charges
and said the NCB officials, led by Shajji Mohan, a former zonal
director of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in Chandigarh, were
demanding money from the accused to get them freed.

"The husband and son of the applicant were kidnapped from Chandigarh
by the NCB officials Dec 10, 2007. They showed their arrest on the
night of Dec 11 with a contraband of heroin in a car that was
registered in Uttarakhand," Chaudhary told reporters.

"The NCB officials led by Shajji Mohan demanded Rs.10 million from
their family members for freeing them. They even gave life threats
to the family," said Chaudhary.

Mohan, an IPS officer of the 1995 Jammu and Kashmir cadre, was
arrested with a contraband of 12 kg heroin in a Mumbai suburb Sunday.

Baljinder Singh's wife Amarjit Kaur has filed a plea in the high
court here challenging the Dec 20 arrests. The case is pending.

The applicant also submitted a written complaint at NCB office in
New Delhi and sent a copy to ATS chief in Mumbai Wednesday.

"We met Ish Sharma, deputy director general of NCB, Wednesday
morning and apprised him about the situation. He has assured us of
fair and free investigation in this case," said Chaudhary.