Punjab Police arrest wanted in heroin haul in Mumbai
Darpan News Desk IANS, 03 Nov, 2022 10:42 AM
Chandigarh, Nov 3 (IANS) In a crucial breakthrough, Punjab Police have arrested three high-profile drug smugglers, who were wanted in a 72.5-kg heroin haul from Nhava Sheva Port in Mumbai, Director General of Police (DGP) Punjab Gaurav Yadav said here on Thursday.
The contraband, which was kept concealed in the door of the container containing white marble tiles, was jointly recovered by the teams of Punjab Police and ATS Mumbai in July. The container was imported by a Delhi-based importer.
Those arrested have been identified as Gurwinder Singh, alias Mehak (27), Gursewak Singh, alias Sewak (25), and Manjit Singh, alias Soni (34). The trio, arrested from Gurdaspur, were actively involved in a high-level trans-border and inter-state drug smuggling.
DGP Yadav said following inputs, Gurdaspur Police launched a special operation on Wednesday evening and arrested the accused after intercepting an SUV Mahindra Thar at the Amritsar-Jammu highway in the Dhariwal area of Gurdaspur.
The police have also recovered a revolver along with six cartridges of 9mm and live cartridges of .32 bore during the search of the vehicle, he added.
Earlier, the Mumbai ATS had managed to arrest accused Harsimran Sethi from Delhi, who ordered the consignment and his aide, Mohinder Singh Rathore, who was working as a clearing agent.
The DGP said during the investigation, the Mumbai ATS had nominated these three arrested persons, who were recipients of the container and went to Delhi to clear the consignment.
SSP Gurdaspur Deepak Hilori said accused Gurwinder Singh and Manjit Singh were also wanted by Amritsar Rural Police in an attempt to murder case in which they fired upon the police party of Amritsar Rural district in October 2020.
He said that further investigations are going on to unravel this network of drug smuggling in Punjab and other states.
The foundation stone of the cancer hospital, the first of its kind cancer care in north India, was laid by then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on December 30, 2013. At that time Parkash Singh Badal was the Chief Minister of Punjab in a coalition of the Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP government.
The leader, who complained of uneasiness on Monday night, was taken to hospital at around 8 a.m. this morning, where she was declared brought dead. Sonali Phogat had contested the 2019 Haryana Assembly election from Adampur and lost to Congress candidate Kuldeep Bishnoi.
During investigation, it was found that Swapna is a school dropout but managed to get a degree certificate from Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Open University. Based on the fake certificate and influence of high ranking officials like Sivasankar, she secured a plush job in the IT department which was headed by Vijayan.
Earlier, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann asked Director General of the Border Security Force (BSF) Pankaj Kumar to enhance vigil at the borders of the state for checking smuggling of drugs and weapons from across the border. The Director General had called on the Chief Minister here on July 31.
Inspector General of Police (IGP) Sukhchain Singh Gill, while addressing his weekly press conference here, said they have recovered 11.73 kg heroin, 20 kg opium, 9 kg ganja, 5.76 quintals of poppy husk, and 28,000 tablets of Pharma opioids, besides recovering Rs 20 lakh drug money after carrying out cordon and search operations in drug-affected areas.
Addressing a gathering here while handing over appointment letters to the newly recruited 4,358 constables in Punjab Police, the Chief Minister said the state government has conducted the entire recruitment process in a transparent and fair manner.
