A week after arresting a Border Security Force (BSF) personnel in connection with the cross-border illegal arms and drug smuggling racket, Punjab Police has arrested an Army jawan and three more accused in the same case.
The total number of persons arrested in the case so far now stands at eight, said the state Director General of Police (DGP) Dinkar Gupta, adding that the Punjab Police was actively engaged in following the money trail to eradicate the drug menace from the State.
Giving details of the latest arrests, the DGP said that Ramandeep Singh, an Indian Army soldier, was apprehended from Bareilly (Uttar Pradesh), where he was currently posted, on the basis of disclosures made by BSF constable Sumit Kumar, who was arrested along with three accomplices by Jalandhar (Rural) police a week ago.
“Ramandeep’s three accomplices — Taranjot Singh alias Tanna, Jagjit Singh alias Laddi, and Satinder Singh alias Kaala — have also been arrested and are being brought on production warrants. Another Rs 10 lakh has been recovered from Kala as drug money, taking the total amount of such money seized in the case to Rs 42.30 lakh,” said the DGP.
HOW THEY MET
He added that Sumit, who belonged to the same village — Magar Mudian under Dorangla police station in Gurdaspur district — as Ramandeep, had disclosed during questioning that he was lured by his village classmate the Army jawan, into the cross-border narco-weapons smuggling racket.
The duo was also lodged together in Gurdaspur jail after committing a murder in their village. While Sumit was bailed out on January 4, 2018, Ramandeep was bailed out on September 14, 2019.
DGP said that Ramandeep was running the drugs and weapons smuggling racket in conspiracy with Taranjot Singh and Satinder Singh. Satinder was, for some time, lodged in Amritsar Jail, where he came in contact with Maulvi alias Mulla, a Pakistani national, who introduced him to Pakistani smugglers.
Gupta said that from Amritsar Jail, Satinder was shifted to Kapurthala jail where he befriended Taranjot Singh and made him into an accomplice. After Satinder underlined the need for involvement of a BSF man in the racket, Ramandeep Singh persuaded Sumit to join the drug smuggling module.
MODUS OPERANDI
Throwing light on modus operandi of the gang, the DGP said that Sumit used to send photographs of the fencing, drug-delivery locations and others to Taranjot and Satinder. After the delivery of the consignment on the Indian side at a pre-determined time and place, three other accomplices of Taranjot used to collect it from Sumit Kumar.
Gupta said that Jagjit Singh alias Laddi used to provide his Swift car to them for transport of the drug consignments.
“Based on investigations carried out so far, these accused are suspected to have been smuggled in 42 packets of heroin, a 9 mm foreign made Pistol (with 80 live rounds and two live rounds of 12 bore gun) so far,” said the DGP adding that they had received Rs 39 lakh as drug proceeds from Pakistan based smugglers so far.
He said that out of Rs 39 lakh, Rs 32.30 lakh was received by Sumit Kumar to be distributed equally between him and Ramandeep Singh.
BUSTING MODULES
In line with its strategy of ‘following the money trail’ to hit out hard at the various pillars of the drug smuggling and supply trade, based in Pakistan, UAE and various parts of India, such as Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, Delhi etc, the Punjab Police has successfully busted many modules in the narco-terrorism supply chain, which is operated under the direct watch of the ISI as well as the rest of the Pak establishment to finance its terror operations, said the DGP.