Inspector, accomplice booked for disappearance of 5.47 kg heroin from Customs malkhana

Days after the arrest of Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) Inspector Manjit Singh with 1 kg of heroin, the Amritsar city police commissionerate have registered another FIR against him in connection with mysterious disappearance of 5.47 kg of heroin from the Customs malkhana.

The contraband has been missing from malkhana since March 22 this year. Apart from arresting Manjit Singh and his accomplice Ravi Kumar of Ferozepur in the case, the role of a custom official identified as Prashant Kuhar has also come under scanner.

The Civil Lines police have registered a case under Section 316 (5) of BNS against them. The duo was currently in police remand after officials claimed that several names had cropped up during their interrogation. The police will also investigate the role of the Prashant Kuhar, the disposal in-charge of the malkhana of the Customs Department.

A complaint regarding 5.47 kg of heroin having gone missing was lodged with the Civil Lines police on April 11. In the complaint, the Customs authorities had pointed out that Prashant in his statement had stated that Manjit Singh had received the contraband on the pretext of producing it in the court.

However, Manjit had earlier told the police during preliminary probe that Prashant handed over narcotics to him to deliver it to some other man in D-block of Ranjit Avenue.

Sources in the Police Department said during investigation couple of more names had cropped up and efforts were on to arrest them. Besides, the police teams would also be heading to Sonepat in Haryana to question Prashant Kuhar, the sources added.

Police Commissioner Gurpreet Singh Bhullar said, “We are in touch with senior officials of the Central agencies and will take the investigation to a logical conclusion.”

Earlier, Manjit was arrested by the CIA staff along with Ravi Kumar of Gandhi Nagar in Ferozepur with 1 kg of heroin on April 6. Bhullar had alleged that Manjit was misusing his position for running the drug network in connivance with Ravi. He said the duo were sourcing consignments from across the border.