As part of a special drive against drug smugglers and proclaimed offenders (POs), the Moga Police froze properties worth Rs 12.80 crores in the period of last six months. “To make drug smugglers and POs face the due process of law, the District Police have been proactively working towards getting their illegally obtained properties — which includes land, residential or house, attached,” said Moga Senior superintendent of Police (SSP) Harmanbir Singh Gill.
He said that, as per the records, the Moga Police have managed to seize the properties worth Rs 10.08 crores of at least 39 POs, besides, freezing properties of over Rs 2.70 crores of 11 drug smugglers from January 1, 2021, till now.
“We have attached properties of POs under Sections 82/, 83 of the CrPC, while properties of drug smugglers were attached under Section 68F (2) of the NDPS Act with the order of Administrator, SAFEM (FOP), after which, the cases were sent to the competent authorities for the seizure of the properties,” he said.
“As soon as we got clearance from the Department of Revenue, the police have seized all the properties,” said SSP Gill adding that further process is on to auction these properties, which will help in generating the revenue of the Government. Apart from this, 15 cases about freezing property worth Rs 6.14 crores of 15 drug smugglers, while, similar cases, related with property seizure of at least 11 POs worth Rs 88.70 lakhs are in pipeline, said the SSP adding that soon they will get clearance to freeze these properties.
Notably, the Moga Police has managed to forfeit properties worth Rs 21.03 crores of at least 53 drug smugglers since 2017.