A Nigerian drug peddler and a resident of Nalasopara, who was a history-sheeter involved in many cases of drug peddling, died at a forest near Naglabunder of Ghodbunder Road in the Thane district on Friday after he allegedly fell over a pipe and hit the wall near a deserted house while escaping Anti Narcotics Cell police who was trying to arrest him.
The deceased has been identified as Joe Izzikil.
Sanjay Shinde, senior police inspector of the ANC Thane said, "The anti-narcotics cell had arrested Sandeep Maurya, a resident of Santacruz, on Thursday with 80 grams of Mephedrone (MD) powder. We interrogated Maurya and asked him who supplies him with the MD powder. Maurya named two Nigerian nationals who were drug peddlers. After getting the information we told Maurya to ask both the Nigerians to bring the contraband to Naglabunder of Ghodbunder Road in Thane on Friday morning. Accordingly, our team laid a trap at Naglabunder at 7:30 am on Friday to arrest them red-handedly. The accused came on Activa to give contraband to Maurya. Soon as they reached out, our team tried to arrest them. One was nabbed while the other, in order to avoid arrest, went inside the forest area to flee away from the police. We were not able to find him in the Naglabunder forest. He tried to jump from a wall but hit his head badly and collapsed. Our team found him lying on a pipe and he was bleeding profusely. We took him to Vedant hospital for treatment, where he has declared dead by doctors before admission. It is not the case of custodial death as he was not arrested."
Nilesh Sonawane, assistant commissioner of police said, "We have conducted the legal formalities and an accidental death report has been registered with the Kasarwadawli police station."
Shinde added, "While probing the case we found that the accused had several drug possession cases registered against him and the police have sought the documents. Also, his wife had been arrested for possession of drugs by the Vakola police station. The deceased was from Nigeria and his wife is from Ghana. Further investigation is on and we will try to get more information on how many more people were associated with him."
The body of the deceased Nigerian national was sent for autopsy at JJ Hospital in Byculla and the reports are awaited, informed Shinde.
