New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate has arrested dismissed DMK functionary Jafar Sadiq from Tihar Jail in connection with a drug-related money laundering probe, official sources said on Friday.
Sources said the federal agency will soon take the 36-year-old man to Chennai and produce him before the Special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and seek his remand for custodial interrogation.
Sadiq was arrested by ED on June 26 from Tihar Jail where he is in judicial custody in the NCB case. He said a production warrant is being sought from a Delhi court, after which he is expected to be taken to Chennai, where the ED case is registered.
The ED had earlier taken permission from the court to interrogate him in jail and during the process he was taken into custody.
He was first arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in March for his alleged involvement in smuggling of around 3,500 kg of pseudoephedrine worth over Rs 2,000 crore.
The money laundering case stems from separate NCB and Customs complaints filed against Sadiq and his associates on charges of involvement in "cross-border illicit trade in narcotics".
Sadiq, the alleged mastermind of an international drug trafficking syndicate, is accused of smuggling pseudoephedrine in the form of health-mix powder and desiccated coconut into Australia and New Zealand, the ED had said.
He was expelled by the ruling DMK in February after the NCB mentioned his name and alleged links to the drugs network.
Tamil Nadu Law Minister and DMK leader S Regupathy had said that his party had no links with Sadiq.
Sources said the federal agency will soon take the 36-year-old man to Chennai and produce him before the Special Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and seek his remand for custodial interrogation.
Sadiq was arrested by ED on June 26 from Tihar Jail where he is in judicial custody in the NCB case. He said a production warrant is being sought from a Delhi court, after which he is expected to be taken to Chennai, where the ED case is registered.
The ED had earlier taken permission from the court to interrogate him in jail and during the process he was taken into custody.
He was first arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in March for his alleged involvement in smuggling of around 3,500 kg of pseudoephedrine worth over Rs 2,000 crore.
The money laundering case stems from separate NCB and Customs complaints filed against Sadiq and his associates on charges of involvement in "cross-border illicit trade in narcotics".
Sadiq, the alleged mastermind of an international drug trafficking syndicate, is accused of smuggling pseudoephedrine in the form of health-mix powder and desiccated coconut into Australia and New Zealand, the ED had said.
He was expelled by the ruling DMK in February after the NCB mentioned his name and alleged links to the drugs network.
Tamil Nadu Law Minister and DMK leader S Regupathy had said that his party had no links with Sadiq.
