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

A social media account of one of the accused arrested in the inter-state narcotics ring recently flaunted its influence by posing with politicians, officials, including police officers, and posted a purported letter from Lt. Governor Manoj Sinha requesting his participation in the ‘Nasha Mukt J&K’ campaign earlier this year.

On October 1, the J&K Police busted a major racket and arrested eight locals from Srinagar in an inter-state narcotics case, including Haris Hameed Malla, a resident of Chattabal in Srinagar. “Malla was traced through technical surveillance and detained by the Srinagar police from Bengaluru, Karnataka. Investigation into the respective roles and links of the accused is on,” the police said.

However, social media purportedly dealing with the accused, identified on X as “Official Haris Hameed”, includes a series of pictures posted of politicians such as Aga Syed Ruhullah of the National Conference, Deputy Chief Minister Surinder Choudhary and Mehbooba Mufti of the People’s Democratic Party. He claimed to be a “community journalist, media panelist, public speaker, editor-in-chief” of an online newspaper, in addition to posting pictures on social media with senior officials, including senior police officers.

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

On 1 October, the police described the arrest of eight people as the “busting of a structured narcotics network involved in procurement, transportation, storage, distribution and financing of banned pharmaceutical drugs with links beyond J&K”. It said the police action led to the recovery of a locker worth around ₹2.20 crore, apart from drugs and a pistol.

Published – 03 Oct 2026 21:34 IST