Navi Mumbai police have registered an FIR against a Taloja landlord for allegedly renting an apartment to a Nigerian national without filing the mandatory C-Form, after the tenant was arrested with mephedrone and cocaine valued at Rs 3.58 crore.
The Anti-Narcotics Cell of the Navi Mumbai crime branch arrested 41-year-old Ani Ikechukwu Darlington after laying a trap near a hotel on the Panvel-Mumbra highway in Taloja around 6.30 pm on October 8. Police said he was found carrying 211 grams of mephedrone valued at Rs 6.62 lakh.
A subsequent search of his rented apartment in Ambika building in Rohinjan village recovered 2.2 kg of mephedrone and 566 grams of cocaine. The drugs were collectively valued at Rs 3.51 crore, according to the report. The total value cited by police for the drugs found on Darlington and in the apartment was Rs 3.58 crore.
The FIR at Taloja police station names the landlord as Somnath Balchandra Ghosh, 50, a resident of Mauli Sadan in Rohinjan village. Sandeep Nigade, senior inspector of the Anti-Narcotics Cell, said police had invoked Section 24 of the Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025, against Ghosh.
The provision deals with alleged abetment by a person who rents out accommodation to a foreign national without completing the prescribed reporting requirements. According to Nigade, the offence carries a possible punishment of up to three years in prison, a fine of up to Rs 3 lakh, or both, if the accused is convicted by a court.
The C-Form is an online notification that property owners are required to submit when renting accommodation to a foreign national. It records details including the tenant’s passport, visa and stay information. The requirement places a compliance responsibility on landlords in addition to the normal process of executing a rental agreement and providing information to local authorities.
Police said Darlington had previously been arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau’s Mumbai unit in 2019 in a drug-peddling case. The report said he spent seven years in prison and was released on bail last year. His current arrest followed the police operation in Taloja and the recovery of the alleged contraband from his possession and rented apartment.
The latest FIR is not the first case in Navi Mumbai involving alleged failures to submit C-Forms for foreign tenants. In September last year, Kharghar police registered two separate FIRs against landlords accused of renting apartments to eight African nationals without submitting the required online details.
In one case, police identified the landlord as Amit Shroff of Thane and the tenant as Ifeanyi Ugochukwo. The apartment was located in Chaudhary Heights society in Sector 27, Ranjanpada, Kharghar. Police alleged that the tenant did not have a valid passport and visa and that the landlord had not submitted the rental agreement at the police station. Ugochukwo was lodged at Taloja jail under provisions of the Foreigners Act, 1946, according to the report.
In the other case, police identified Javed Ali Sayyed as the landlord who had rented two apartments in Faujia Mansion building in Sector 34, Kharghar, to seven African nationals. The cases underline the enforcement challenge created when housing transactions take place without the documentation required for foreign occupants.
The latest investigation will determine the responsibility of the landlord and the tenant’s alleged role in the drug case. The charges and allegations remain subject to proceedings before the court.
