Cricket, Capital and Cocaine

TWO years back, Narcotics branch of the Delhi Police was hot on a chase of big time drug peddler. They were regularly tapping his cell-phone and during his conversation they learnt that one of his regular clients was an ex-cricketer staying in a posh South Delhi colony. He was regular in the South Delhi's cocktail circuit and had number of girl-friends with whom he had lurid conversations when high on drugs. Cops did not arrest him even though they knew he was a drug user as they were interested in netting the drug supplier. It was for the first time that narcotics sleuths found out cricketers’ love for white snow or cocaine.

In fact in the case of Maninder Singh, too, cops zeored on him while trailing information culled out from a drug supplier Mohammad Aslam arrested in March this year. During Aslam's interrogation the name of Saim Siddique figured. He also disclosed that one Mohamamd Naved, a Mumbai resident supplied drugs. Naved is said to be part of big inter-state drug network which is run by his brother Guddu, a known drug pedeller. Tapping of Siddique's cellphone provided further lead that he was procuring cocaine for his mentor Maninder who runs a cricket academy at Maninder Singh Cricket Academy at National Stadium. Sam is coach at his academy and is Maninder Singh’s Man Friday.

According to DCP (Narcotics) AS Cheema, “We were trailing Sayyam and his trail led to Maninder’s house. When we arrested them, they were on their way to airport as Maninder was going to Mumbai for five days. In Mumbai too, Sayyam had arranged for Maninder to procure cocaine from someone. We have got some leads on this matter and we are investigating on it.”

Talking about Maninder Singh’s marital problems, a close friend of the cricketer said, “It was his regular abuse of drugs that was the root cause of his troubled marriage. Maninder’s wife is a simple homely housewife and she opposed his excessive use of drugs. The problems started three years back when Maninder became a regular cokehead.”

Even though, Sam and Maninder are not part of the big drug network and kept a low profile, there are few flamboyant cricketers (both past and present) who are frequently spotted at hip discotheques. Flushed with money and high on fame quotient, these cricketers move around with rich kids who are capital’s known cokeheads. Nigerians are their favourite peddlers.

When asked about Maninder’s crony Sayyam, a regular who snorts cocaine and knows most of the suppliers in the circuit said, "I have never heard this name (Sayyam). I know of a Kashmiri guy working in a restaurant in a five-star hotel in New Delhi, who supplies to one of the biggest names of world cricket. There are other big names too. I think the cops need to net them as well. In a recent party, a couple of cricketers were seen snorting cocaine in a small room at a high-end bar of Delhi. At the party, a foreign high profile ex-cricketer snorted cocaine in front of me in room. When he came out he met an Indian cricketer too. They shook hands and the Indian cricketer walked into the same room where he had snorted cocaine.”

Although Maninder singh’s arrest has stunned the cocktail circuit “Never in our life had we imagined that Maninder Singh is a cokehead. He was one of the few decent cricketers and never seen in Delhi’s page three circuit. There are certain other cricketers, whom we have seen in the regular page three parties and roaming along with cokeheads. If Maninder, who used to keep such a low profile, is doing cocaine, then you can see how deep drug abuse has penetrated in Delhi,” says a party goer, who is omnipresent on most page three dos in Delhi. Also the alleged supplier to Maninder, Sayyam Siddiqui’s identity too is not familiar among cocaine users.

In fact according to page three grapevine, “Few English and ex-Pakistani cricketers last year were regular at the prominent nightclubs of Delhi, whenever they visited Delhi and their hosts were regular users of cocaine.”

Delhi loves to get high on cocaine and most of the rich brats and nightclub regulars swear by it. For some, cocaine is an easy means of sleeping with a girl as the Capital has its known high profile ‘coke sluts’, who would do anything for a free dose of cocaine. The Indian capital ignonimously sees heavy imports of cocaine and ecstasy pills whereas it is becoming a huge exporter of heroin and hash.

Cocaine comes to India from Africa. India is an important transit point for this white gold. The normal international trade route of cocaine is from Columbia to African countries from where it travels to either Delhi or Mumbai and from here it travels to European countries. A large part of the consignment is dropped in India for consumption. It costs Rs 3,500-8,000 per gram in the Indian market. Pure uncut Columbian cocaine is for Rs 8,000 and as the impurity goes higher, the cost comes down. This is a cause of concern for cokeheads as cocaine mixed with heroin can be deadly concoction where death is imminent.

The Rahul Mahajan cocaine case was a shocker to the snorting fraternity as they believed it was adulterated cocaine which took the life of Pramod Mahajan’s secretary Bibek Moitra and sent Rahul into hospital. The aftermath of this incident was bad news for the community as lots of big peddlers hid themselves and Delhi’s high profile New Year bashes went high and dry after the page three fraternity decided to celebrate out of Delhi.