Navi Mumbai: Following the arrest of a 41-year-old national, a tenant in Taloja, by the Anti-Narcotics Cell (ANC) team of Navi Mumbai crime branch on Thursday after he was caught for possessing mephedrone and cocaine collectively worth Rs 3.58 crore, the ANC has registered an FIR at Taloja police station against the arrested accused’s landlord for illegally renting out his apartment to a foreign national.Sandeep Nigade, senior inspector of ANC, said, “The accused landlord has been identified as Somnath Balchandra Ghosh (50), residing at Mauli Sadan in Rohinjan village, Taloja node. In the FIR, the Taloja police have invoked section 24 of the Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025 that deals with the penalty for abetment for renting out the apartment to the Nigerian national without submitting the mandatory C-Form, an online notification that property owners must submit with details of the foreigner’s passport, visa and stay information while renting out their apartment to a foreigner tenant. The offence attracts a punishment of imprisonment up to three years, a fine of up to Rs 3 lakh, or both, if convicted by the court.”Landlord Ghosh rented his apartment in Ambika building in Rohinjan village, Taloja, to Nigerian national Ani Ikechukwu Darlington, who was arrested after police laid a trap near a hotel in Taloja on the Panvel-Mumbra highway on Oct 8 around 6.30 pm. He was found in possession of 211 grams of mephedrone worth Rs 6.62 lakh. During the search of his rented apartment, the cops seized a huge contraband of mephedrone weighing 2.2 kg and cocaine weighing 566 grams, collectively worth Rs 3.51 crore. The accused, Darlington, was previously arrested in 2019 by the Narcotics Control Bureau, Mumbai, for drug peddling. He spent seven years in prison and was released on bail last year.In Sept last year, two separate FIRs were registered by Kharghar police against two landlords for illegally renting out their respective apartments to eight African nationals without submitting the ‘C-form’ on the official govt website mandatory for furnishing the details of the arrival of a foreign national in India. Thus, they committed the offence of helping the African nationals to illegally reside as tenants at their apartments.One accused landlord was identified as Amit Shroff, a resident of Thane, and the African national was identified as Ifeanyi Ugochukwo, to whom Shroff had illegally rented out his apartment in Chaudhary Heights society in sector 27, Ranjanpada, Kharghar, despite being aware that the foreign tenant was without a valid passport and visa and did not even submit the mandatory rental agreement at the police station. The accused African national Ugochukwo was lodged at Taloja jail for the offence under the provision of Foreigners Act, 1946.The other accused landlord was identified as Javed Ali Sayyed, who had rented out his two apartments to seven African nationals in Faujia Mansion building at Farshipada in sector 34, Kharghar.
