Special probe team questions Rana Sana for 3 hours

ISLAMABAD: A special investigation team, headed by a Brigadier-rank-officer to probe PML-N senior leader Rana Sanaullah Khan, has questioned around half a dozen accused arrested by the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) in a drug related case in past two days.

The five members team would continue to probe around dozen accused in this high profile case of drug smuggling for coming two weeks as the magistrate extended the judicial remand of all the accused including Rana Sanaullah Khan in this case on Tuesday in Lahore.

"Investigation team investigated Rana Sana for over three hours in Lahore on Monday," a senior ANF official confirmed to this correspondent. "Rana Sanaullah did not own the recovered drugs from his vehicle. He also called spade a spade that he had never been in links with narcotics business,” added the official on condition of anonymity.

The investigation team has left many queries pertaining to his alleged link with drug traffickers, now in ANF custody, who were involved in narcotics business in Faisalabad, Lahore and Gujranwala, added the sources. “Two of five arrested narcotics smugglers also confessed to have link with Rana Sanaullah,” added another ANF official who was familiar with the latest development.

But close sources of Rana Sanaullah said that two of five arrested narcotics smugglers who confessed to have link with Rana Sana were made to confess this under duress, and what was fed them was total lie. The investigation team also questioned five other accused on Monday, sources further revealed.

Last week, three senior officials of Ministry of Narcotics and ANF (prosecution team) met with PTI leader Babar Awan too where they finalised their legal strategy in Lahore, sources told Geo News.

It is also pertinent to mention here that the Special Investigation Cell (SIC) comprises different intelligence agencies operators was working on this case. The sources said some six to seven alleged front men, including a suspect named Bukhari, earlier arrested by the SIC provided solid information to the ANF team allegedly linking Rana Sanaullah to a narcotics scam.

The sources said the alleged front men in ANF custody told investigators that they were allegedly raising funds through narcotics businesses for Rana Sanaullah, and that the funds were later being funneled to proscribed organisations. These claims and allegations have yet to be proved true before the court law. The suspects, whose information led to Sanaullah’s arrest, were arrested three months back.

The sources said the ANF had gathered data of calls showing Rana Sanaullah’s connections with the alleged front men. This was one of the reasons Rana Sana was arrested, a sources privy to the inside developments told this scribe.