Navpreet Singh Deported From Türkiye, Brought Back to India: Amit Shah

In a post on X, Shah said Singh had allegedly obtained Turkish citizenship by using the identity of “Navab Virk” and continued to operate a drug-trafficking network involving the movement of heroin and methamphetamine from Afghanistan to India.

According to the Home Minister, Indian agencies worked to establish Singh’s actual identity before coordinating his return from Türkiye. Shah said Singh is now in custody in India in connection with cases related to drug trafficking and other alleged offences.

Shah congratulated the agencies involved in tracing and bringing Singh back, while reiterating the government’s stated focus on disrupting international narcotics networks. He also said the government had set a target of dismantling narco-cartels by December 2029.

The latest deportation follows the return of another alleged international drug trafficker, Mohammad Salim Dola, from Türkiye in April. The Narcotics Control Bureau said Dola, who was wanted in several narcotics cases and was the subject of an Interpol Red Notice, was brought back to India following coordination between Turkish authorities, Interpol and Indian agencies.

India has also pursued the return of other fugitives accused in narcotics cases from overseas. In May, the Delhi Police Special Cell, with assistance from the Central Bureau of Investigation, brought fugitive Prabhdeep Singh back from Azerbaijan in connection with a case involving the alleged recovery of 358 kg of heroin.

India and Türkiye have an extradition agreement signed in Ankara in June 2001. The agreement establishes a framework under which the two countries can seek the extradition of individuals accused or convicted of extraditable offences. India’s Ministry of External Affairs lists Türkiye among the countries with which it has an extradition arrangement.