A prisoner on parole was among four persons arrested on Monday with 24 kg of heroin worth Rs 120 crore in the international market.
The prisoner, identified as Jasbir Singh, was lodged in Amritsar Central Jail in connection with 2010 drug case and was out on a 42-day parole, said AIG (Counter Intelligence), Amritsar, Ashwani Kumar, adding that his parole was to end in 10 days. The other two accused were identified as Kuldip Singh, Avtar Singh, and Tarsem Singh. All four accused are residents of border district of Tarn Taran.
On a tip-off, the police arrested the accused at the main entrance gate of Amritsar city at GT Road with the heroin suspected to have been smuggled from Pakistan, the official said. Jasbir Singh, the main kingpin of the drug trafficking racket, was earlier arrested in 2010 with 54 kg heroin worth Rs 270 crore in the international market. He was undergoing 15 year imprisonment after his conviction.
It has been established that Jasbir was in touch with drug smugglers while in jail and began smuggling from Pakistan after coming out on parole.
On October 26, three Pakistani smugglers were shot dead during a failed infiltration attempt and 24 kg heroin worth Rs 120 crore recovered from them along with weapons by Border Security Force personnel from Attari. Ashwani Kumar said that a case under sections 21, 25, and 29 of the Narcotics Drug and Psychotropic Substance (NDPS) Act has been registered in State Special Operations Cell (SSOC) police station.
He said that the arrested persons were being questioned in detail to establish their Pak contacts and the Indian end where delivery of contraband was to be made. “The arrested persons were being produced in court today where their police remand for further interrogation was sought. Further investigations are ongoing,” he added.