Known as the “drug catcher”, Punjab Police officer Inderjit Singh is in police net on Monday for allegedly having links with drugs and arms mafia.
The Special Task Force (STF) on drugs, constituted by Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh to crackdown on drug mafia in the State, arrested Inspector Inderjit Singh “for providing protection to narcotics smugglers and organising trafficking of narcotics through his associates”.
The ‘blue-eyed’ cop, who was transferred from Kapurthala to Ferozepur a few days ago, was considered to be a “terror” for his major crackdown on drug smugglers and arresting notorious gangsters.
STF chief and Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) Harpreet Singh Sidhu said a team of STF, led by STF Jalandhar Additional Inspector General (AIG) Mukhwinder Singh, conducted an early morning raid at Inderjit Singh’s residence in Jalandhar Police line.
The team arrested the Inspector and recovered 12 bore, 315 bore, .32 bore revolver, 9mm Italian pistol, one .38 bore revolver, one AK 47, 7.62mm calibre and over 700 live cartridges from his possession. The STF also recovered `16.50 lakh cash, 3,550 British pound (`2,90,052.75) and Toyota Innova car (PB-BG-7676) from his house.
“After registration of case against the accused Inspector, joint raids were conducted by various STF teams led by Mukhwinder Singh, STF AIG in ludhiana Snehdeep Sharma, and STF AIG at Rupnagar Harpreet Singh,” said Sidhu.
He said based on the investigations, the first information report (FIR) was registered under Section 59 (2) (b) of the NDPS Act, 1985, and under sections 218, 466, 471, 120-B of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) at STF Police Station in SAS Nagar against Inspector Inderjit Singh and his aide DSP Jaswant Singh.
“On the initial interrogation and his disclosure statement, further recovery of four kgs heroin and three kgs smack was made from his second residence at government quarter No 3, Phagwara. After these recoveries, more sections were added to the FIR which including 22, 61, 85 of the NDPS Act, and 25, 54, 59 of Arms Act”, he added.
Sidhu said reliable sources have provided information to the STF that Inspector Inderjit Singh, who was under transfer to Ferozepur Range, had earlier worked in Tarn Taran district for a long period and was involved in nefarious activities with some narcotics smugglers.
“During 2013 and 2014, the accused had played a big role in providing protection to smugglers operating in his jurisdiction and he himself was organising smuggling and trafficking of narcotics through his associates,” he said.
ADGP added the accused had made recoveries of narcotics in the past but with the motive of obtaining illegal gratification from those in his custody on the promise of helping them in their cases and later getting some of them acquitted through flaccid investigation.
“STF is already analyzing the cases acquitted of during last five years wherein commercial quantity of narcotics was recovered. On receipt of information from field units, it was found that in three FIRs of 2013 in Tarn Taran district, the trial courts have acquitted the accused smugglers on grounds that Inspector Inderjit Singh, who held the substantive rank of Head Constable at the time of registration of cases and subsequent investigation, was not competent to investigate the narcotic cases as per the provisions or rules of the NDPS Act, 1985,” he said.
Sidhu said the accused Inspector had deliberately committed glaring discrepancies during investigation of these cases to favour the accused. “These cases were referred to IGP (Border Zone) and Tarn Taran Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), who in their reports have ascertained these facts.