PUNJAB POLICE BUSTS TRANS-BORDER ILLEGAL ARMS AND NARCO-TERRORISM HAWALA RACKET; KINGPIN AMONG EIGHT HELD

Amritsar: Amidst the ongoing war against drugs waged on the directions of Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann, Amritsar Commissionerate Police in a 10-day long operation has busted a trans-border illegal arms and narco-terrorism hawala racket with the arrest of eight accused persons including a Kingpin identified as Ranjit Singh alias Kaka, said Director General of Police (DGP) Punjab Gaurav Yadav here on Thursday.

Apart from Kingpin, other arrested persons have been identified as Rajinder alias Raja, Abhishek alias Abhi, Vishal alias Shalu, Lovepreet alias Kalu, Gurbhej alias Bheja, Gurjant and Jaspal, all residents of Gharinda in Amritsar.

DGP Gaurav Yadav said that police teams have also recovered 4.10kg heroin, two pistols— Pakistan-made Zigana pistol and .32 bore pistol— along with 45 live cartridges and Rs 2.07 lakh drug money from their possession, besides impounding their seven vehicles bought with drug money. The recovered vehicles include Hyundai Verna, Mahindra Thar, Hyundai i20, Maruti Swift Dzire, Maruti Zen, Activa scooter and Splendor motorcycle.

The DGP said that the operation is still ongoing to nab other entities with cross-border linkages and Hawala involvement.

The development came after meticulous investigations of backward and forward linkages carried out by the Amritsar Commissionerate Police into the arrest of a local drug peddler identified as Rajinder alias Raja (22) of Gharinda in Amritsar, who was arrested with 500 grams heroin, Rs 40,000 drug money, Verna car and a pistol. Accused Rajinder Raja was also wanted by the Amritsar Rural Police in an attempt to murder case.

Sharing more details, Commissioner of Police (CP) Amritsar Ranjit Singh Dhillon said that during investigation, carried out by team of CIA 1 led by Insp Amandeep Singh and Police Station Islamabad under the supervision of ADCP Zone 1 Dr Darpan Ahluwalia and ADCP Detective Navjot Singh Sandhu, into the arrest of Rajinder Raja, backward linkage was traced to kingpin Ranjit Singh alias Kaka.

He said that after the meticulous follow-up of financial trail and technical investigations, Police teams have successfully arrested Kingpin Ranjit Kaka and other accused persons, with further recovery of smuggled heroin, firearms and live cartridges.

The CP said that the probe has revealed that the Kingpin Ranjit Kaka, who was in direct contact Pak based entities, was running a heroin and illegal weapons racket in Punjab, and further fuelling the Hawala nexus, and re-routing to Pakistan.

Further investigations are on to establish backward and forward linkages in this case, he added.