Punjab police caught 327 drug smugglers in the past week
Darpan News Desk IANS, 23 Aug, 2022 10:55 AM
Chandigarh, Aug 23 (IANS) The Punjab police on Tuesday said it arrested 327 drug smugglers or suppliers after registering 230 first information reports (FIRs) under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act in the state in the last one week.
The police arrested 43 proclaimed offenders and absconders in NDPS Act cases during this period.
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.
Talking about new trends in drug smuggling, he said the police have tightened the noose around the drug smugglers. Now the drug peddlers and suppliers are adopting new ways to evade arrest by selling drugs in little quantities, in milligrams and grams so that they could not be detected.
"One latest trend has come to fore wherein drug smugglers smuggled drugs by concealing them in onion-loaded trucks to avoid the stink," he added.
Recently, it has also been observed that supply from Abohar and Ferozepur sides is increasing and drug suppliers are now preferring public transport to smuggle drugs, to avoid checking, the IGP said. He added that intoxicant tablets are majorly being supplied from the Uttar Pradesh and Delhi side from Saharanpur, Ghaziabad, Bahadurgarh via Haryana, while opium and poppy husk are mostly coming from Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan side.
Gill said the state police have also waged a war against anti-social elements and gangsters.
The police have busted 67 criminal modules and arrested 301 gangsters, besides neutralizing two dreaded gangsters in an encounter and recovered 640 weapons along with 174 magazines and 3,364 cartridges from their possession.
Besides, the police have recovered seven hand grenades and five IEDs, he added.
A senior Delhi Police official told IANS that on April 7, a case was registered at the Cyber Cell in which a fraudster impersonated as a senior government official using the WhatsApp display profile and the name of that dignitary and demanded financial favour in the shape of Amazon gift vouchers by pretending to be in trouble.
According to the Deputy Commissioner of Police from Punjab: "Extornist Sharif, alias Mazaralam Shaikh, had called up an Amritsar-based doctor demanding Rs 5 lakh as ransom. After introducing himself as Vicky Brar and a member of Lawrence Bishnoi and Goldy Brar, he had threatened to kill the doctor if the ransom money was not transferred into his account."
In less than 24 hours, police found the baby girl's parents, who were identified as Manjula and Sailesh Bajania. They admitted before the police that they buried the baby as it was premature birth, and since they were financially weak and feared medical expenses, they decided to bury her.
In her letter, DCW chairperson Swati Maliwal demanded that the woman's mortal remains be repatriated to her family in India and a team of psychologists, social workers and police officers meet her children and ascertain their condition.
As per this policy, the royalty of Rs 2.40 per cubic feet will be the same as earlier. Revenue collected under the Information and Technology Department and weigh bridge head, which is 10 paise per cubic feet, will be deposited in the state exchequer instead of being retained by the contractor currently.
BSF's Deputy Inspector General, Gurdaspur Sector, Prabhakar Joshi informed that BSF had recovered Rs 500, two mobile phones, two identity cards and a packet of tobacco from their possession. However, he said that their motive to infiltrate India was yet to be known and BSF was investigating the same.
