PANAJI
A Rs 3.96-crore drug money trail allegedly routed through banking channels to Dubai, converted into cryptocurrency and then used to procure narcotics through the dark web has led the Enforcement Directorate (ED), Goa, to charge five more persons in a money laundering case.
The ED filed a supplementary prosecution complaint against Nihal Vadakkancherry Nazer, Prasobh P K, Alfin Thomas, Dheeraj Mathews and Nishant Pratap before the Principal District and Sessions Judge, North Goa, Special Court under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The five have been arraigned as additional accused and face charges under Sections 3 and 4 of the PMLA, read with Sections 44 and 45 of the Act, for their alleged roles in generating, procuring, layering, concealing, and converting proceeds of crime.
Details of the complaint accessed by The Goan reveal that the supplementary complaint follows the main prosecution complaint filed on March 16, 2026, against seven accused. The ED said its investigation had established that Rs 3.96 crore approx was generated as proceeds of crime through organised inter-State and cross-border trafficking of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances.
The money trail was uncovered during an investigation by the Goa Police Anti-Narcotic Cell on October 15, 2024, against Madhupan Sasikala in alleged international narcotics trafficking.
The ED said that Madhupan had allegedly generated the proceeds of crime through this criminal method since 2016.
“A portion of the alleged proceeds was layered through banking channels and routed to Dubai, where it was converted into cryptocurrency in the form of USDT. The cryptocurrency was then allegedly used to procure narcotic substances through the dark web,” it said.
Further investigation led the ED to identify five additional accused and their alleged roles in moving, layering, and converting the proceeds of crime.
The ED has also quantified the alleged proceeds of crime held by two accused named in the main complaint. It identified Rs 9.39 lakh in the possession of Anam Charan Pradhan, Accused No. 2, and Rs 17.48 lakh in the possession of Uttam Chand, Accused No. 3.
Immovable properties equivalent in value to these amounts were provisionally attached by the ED on September 16. Earlier this year, the ED conducted searches at 26 premises across Goa, Maharashtra, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Odisha and Delhi in connection with the case.
