New Delhi, May 13 (IANS): The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday filed its third supplementary chargesheet at a special court in Hyderabad against another accused in the Mundra Port narcotics case related to the seizure of 2,988 kg heroin.

The consignment was smuggled into India from Afghanistan via Bandar Abbas, Iran in 2021.

With this, a total of 42 individuals and seven firms have so far been named in the chargesheet in the case.

On Friday, the NIA filed chargesheet against one Pankaj Vaid a.k.a. Amit, a resident of Amritsar in Punjab. He has been charged under various sections of IPC and NDPS Act.

"Pankaj is accused of being a part of the organised criminal conspiracy to smuggle illegal consignments of heroin through international trade routes to India from Afghanistan. As per NIA investigations, Pankaj was associated with foreign-based narcotics traders involved in pushing drugs into India," the NIA said.

The NIA investigations have further revealed that Pankaj had facilitated the processing of heroin and later sold the extracted heroin in India.

The case was initially registered by Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) Unit - Gandhidham, Gujarat and later on the probe of the matter was taken over by the NIA on October 6, 2021. After taking over the probe, the NIA filed a chargesheet against 16 accused persons on March 14, 2022.

Later, the NIA filed the first supplementary chargesheet on August 29, 2022 against nine accused.

The second supplementary chargesheet was filed in the matter against seven firms and 15 individuals on February 20, 2023.