Police, civil administration to identify, demolish houses of drug peddlers

With the Punjab Government announcing “War on drugs” and deciding to continue demolition of houses of notorious drug traffickers apart from freezing their properties, the police and the civil administration have started identifying structures owned by them.

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Till now, the administration and the police authorities have identified six such properties in the Chheharta area which may face demolition in the near future.

Yesterday, official of the administration had gone to demolish a house allegedly belonging to a drug peddler in the Anngarh area, infamous for rampant drug abuse, but it was postponed after pasting a notice on the building. It could not be ascertained why the demolition was postponed.

“We will take all appropriate measures in the future that could deter and discourage peddlers, while forcing them to shun the illegal trade of drugs,” said a senior police official wishing anonymity.

The Punjab Government had declared to rid the state of the menace of the rampant drug abuse within three months following which a crackdown and cordon and search operation (CASO) was launched in the entire state leading to arrest of peddlers and seizure of drugs.

The city police recovered 1.3 kg of heroin in five cases and arrested six persons in this connection.

The Chheharta police arrested drug peddlers identified as Amandeep Singh, alias Sonu (38), of Kartar Nagar, Pawan Kumar, alias Gora (50), of Shingar Avenue from the Kapatgarh area, and seized 265gm heroin from them. They had two and five cases registered under the NDPS Act against them, respectively.

Similarly, the Maqboolpura police nabbed Ranjit Singh, aka Jimmy (30), of Mehta Road from Vallah Bridge and confiscated 270gm of heroin from him. He had 10 criminal cases registered against him.

The Division B police arrested Khushwant Singh, alias Losa (40), of Chowk Parag Das with 260gm heroin from Bhushanpura locality. He had one case of the NDPS Act registered against him.

The police also arrested Happy (29) of Pippal Wali Gali with 270gm heroin from the Jahajgarh area. He did not have any previous criminal record. In the fifth case, the Division B police nabbed Vavinder Kumar, alias Bindu, of Mahna Singh Road with 265gm heroin. He had four cases of NDPS Act registered against him.

The Amritsar (Rural police) arrested 32 drug traffickers, including women, and seized 1.5kg of heroin, 1kg ICE (Crystal Methamphetamine), besides sedative pills and registered 20 FIRs against the accused in this connection.