4 min readSrinagarUpdated: Aug 11, 2026 03:09 PM IST
Earlier this month, J&K Police received a tip-off: A consignment of narcotics was being sent to Ganderbal district.
The information was significant given the police’s intensified crackdown on drug trafficking, which has lately seen suspected traffickers being booked under the Public Safety Act (PSA), their properties seized, and, in some cases, even their houses demolished.
After intercepting the packet, police landed at the house of the intended recipient of the parcel: A humble poultry farmer who had got married only a few months ago. He told police that he was expecting poultry feed in the parcel and had no idea about the narcotics.
An unusual phone call
He did mention another curious piece of information, though. Earlier this year, he had received a phone call from a number in Saudi Arabia, warning him against proceeding with his marriage plan.
Police questioned his wife, which led them to their culprit: A man called Tariq Ahmad Sofi in Srinagar. A resident of Zainakote area, Sofi was the former boyfriend of the poultry farmer’s wife who had hatched the plan to get him arrested in a drugs case, police said. Sofi was arrested on August 9.
A police officer told The Indian Express that on August 8, police received a tip-off about a parcel containing drugs being couriered from outside Jammu and Kashmir. He said the parcel was intercepted at the post office in Ganderbal and opened in front of a magistrate. It contained a consignment of narcotics, including four kilograms of cocaine, 80 grams of cannabis and some psychotropic drugs.
The parcel was couriered from Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh – some 1,300 kms away.
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The farmer told the police that he was tricked by the sender, who had contacted him through WhatsApp and promised to send over samples of poultry feed. The farmer shared the phone number of the sender to the investigators, who found that it was a Saudi Arabian cellphone number.
A police officer said the farmer told the investigators that he had received a call from a similar number sometime earlier, warning him against marrying the woman. The revelation gave the investigation a new direction.
Conspiracy angle
“It was then that we started to look at the conspiracy angle and the plot to frame him,” he said.
Accused Sofi has revealed that the sender from Kanpur, identified as Areeb, was his friend and had shipped the parcel at his insistence.
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“It was Sofi who first arranged to send the parcel through his friend and then tipped off the police,” said a senior police officer. “Since he was cautious, he didn’t directly give a tip-off to the police. Instead, he did it through some other people.”
Sofi has been booked under sections 8/20 and 21 of the NDPS Act.
Police said though Sofi’s friend Areeb is from Kanpur, he has been living in Saudi Arabia for some time now.
Police are investigating how Areeb arranged the drugs shipped to the farmer. A police officer said they are investigating the role of Areeb to find out if he was aware of the plot.
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“We are investigating if he (Sofi) sent the parcel from here and asked him to ship it to the Ganderbal address or if it was his friend who arranged the narcotics,” said the officer. “We are not sure whether the Kanpur man knew about the contents of the parcel or not.”