J&K man, held in interstate narcotics network, claims to be part of LG’s anti-drug campaign

The social media account of one of the accused arrested in the interstate narcotics network recently flaunted his influence by posing with politicians, officials, including police officers, and posted a purported letter from Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha seeking his participation in the ‘Nasha Mukt J&K’ campaign earlier this year.

The J&K Police on October 1 busted a major racket and arrested eight locals from Srinagar, in an interstate narcotics case, including Haris Hameed Malla, a resident of Chattabal in Srinagar. “Malla was traced through technical surveillance and apprehended by Srinagar Police from Bengaluru, Karnataka. Investigation into the individual roles and linkages of the accused is continuing,” said the police.

However, the social media handle purportedly of the accused, which goes as ‘Haris Hameed official’ on X, has a series of pictures posted with politicians like National Conference’s Aga Syed Ruhullah, Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Choudhary and Peoples Democratic Party’s Mehbooba Mufti. He claimed to be a “community journalist, media panellist, public speaker, editor-in-chief” of an online newspaper besides posting pictures with senior officials, including senior police officers, on social media.

In a letter posted on X and attributed to the Lok Bhavan, Malla claimed to have received a letter from the Lieutenant Governor to participate in his anti-drug campaign in April this year. However, the veracity of the letter could not be established.

On October 1, the police had termed the arrest of eight people as “busting of a structured narcotics network involved in the procurement, transportation, storage, distribution and financing of banned pharmaceutical drugs, with linkages extending beyond J&K”. It said the police action resulted in locker recovery of around ₹2.20 crore besides drugs and a pistol.