Expressing shock and disbelief over the arrest of Lalrinpuia Lalchhuankima , a 19-year-old national-level table tennis player , at Mumbai airport with Rs 60 lakh-worth drugs, the Mizoram Table Tennis Association on Friday said he is a victim of a smuggling racket. Narcotic Control Bureau (NCB) sources in Mumbai said a Nigerian gang was to receive the 3.9 kg methaqualone , a banned psychotropic substance , in Delhi.“He has been the most sincere boy I have met. He is well disciplined. I believe there is a big racket behind his arrest,” H Lalmuanpuia, vice-president of Mizoram Table Tennis Association, said, adding that the state association is convinced he is innocent. “He is a role model for aspiring table tennis players from Mizoram,” he said.Vanlalrema Vantawl, president of Mizoram Journalists’ Association, said Lalrinpuia had carried the parcel in good faith and was framed. “Mizos are helpful people by nature,” he added.Sources said Lalrinpuia and Lalchhuankima, another player, were coming to Mumbai from Mozambique, where they had allegedly gone on a sponsored trip. There, an African friend had allegedly requested them to carry two parcels. When they arrived in Mumbai, via Abu Dhabi, on Wednesday morning, the parcel with Lalrinpuia was found to be containing drugs, while the one with Lalchhuankima contained slippers.“We had specific information,so we searched his baggage which resulted in recovery of drugs hidden in the bottom of his trolley bag. Now he claims somebody had given the parcel to him to be handed over in Delhi. Usually accused take such stand to defend themselves,'' an NCB official said.Sources in NCB said Mozambique is a trans-shipment point for narcotics such as “hashish, herbal cannabis, cocaine and heroin".A team of officials carried out a search of Lalrinpuia’s room in Anshul Garg Academy in Delhi, where he is studying, but found nothing incriminating.The table tennis player has given the investigators two mobile phone numbers which are believed to be of the Nigerians but they were found to be switched off.Officials suspect he might have been used by the Nigerian gang as carrier. The NCB has written to the government seeking details of the foreign trips Lalrinpuia had made earlier to find out if he had made similar trips to Mozambique.