After Punjab Police tip-off, ATS Gujarat seizes 75 kg heroin
Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 12 Jul, 2022 10:37 AM
Chandigarh, July 12 (IANS) Following specific intelligence inputs regarding the smuggling of heroin from the UAE to Punjab, the Punjab Police in a joint operation with the Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) and central agencies recovered 75 kg heroin from a container at the Mundra Port in Gujarat, Punjab DGP Gaurav Yadav said here on Tuesday.
The contraband was concealed in a container of unstitched clothes using a cardboard pipe which was further camouflaged by an oversized plastic pipe.
The container, which was loaded from the Jebel Ali port in the UAE, was booked by an importer from Malerkotla in Punjab.
The DGP said that as the link of the container has been established with Punjab, the consignment seems to be routed to some other place via Punjab.
"The Punjab part is being explored and investigated," he added.
The recovery comes as a major success amid the ongoing war against drugs launched on the direction of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann.
The DGP said following inputs, Punjab Police's State Special Operation Cell (SSOC) of S.A.S. Nagar had sent teams to Gujarat who were deputed at the Mundra Port.
"In coordination with the central agencies and ATS Gujarat, searches were conducted at the Mundra Port with the help of Customs," he said, adding that after following due procedure and documentation, the container was opened, leading to the recovery of a big haul of 75 kg heroin.
Following the NDPS Act guidelines, the consignment was opened in the presence of Customs officials and the local magistrate.
To ascertain backward and forward linkages, some suspected persons from Malerkotla and Ludhiana found to be linked with this import of consignment have been called for questioning by the district police.
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has also argued that the mercy petition cannot be decided until the appeals filed by other convicts in the case before the apex court are not disposed of. Also, Rajoana has not challenged his conviction or sentence, either before the high court or the Supreme Court
Earlier, four persons, including two Afghanistan nationals, were arrested by the NCB. The fifth accused Shamim Ahmad was arrested from from Laxmi Nagar. A person called Shahid controlled the hawala racket of Dubai. Seeing that Shamim had good links with middlemen working in Dubai, Shahid included him in his gang.
Conceding the proposal of the Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Department to introduce home delivery of atta under National Food Security Act (NFSA), the entire state has been divided into eight zones and the service will commence in one zone in the first phase, in two zones in the second phase, and in the remaining five zones in the last and third phase.
A decision to this effect was taken during a cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann. A spokesperson for the Chief Minister's Office said the posts belong to Group A, B and C. Major departments include Home Affairs, School Education, Health, Power and Technical Education.
Besides Mittal, the Chancellor of Lovely Professional University (LPU), others who were elected in the recently concluded biennial election from Punjab are businessman Sanjeev Arora and AAP Punjab co in-charge Raghav Chadha.
In April, 1.15 kg of cocaine concealed in pills ingested by a passenger was seized at Hyderabad, and in another case one kg of cocaine was seized at Bengaluru in August 2021. Apart from Mumbai and Hyderabad, seizures of cocaine have also been affected at other airports also.
