Proceedings on to bring peddlers’ kin for interrogation

Amritsar, June 6

A day after the arrest of two alleged drug peddlers with Rs 1.97 crore drug money at Kakkar border village, the police have started proceedings to bring kin of one of the suspects on production warrant for further investigation.

The police have sent the five mobile phones seized from them for forensic examination to establish their links with Pakistan-based smugglers.

Balwinder Singh and Gurpreet Singh, both residents of Kakkar village located just half a kilometre ahead of the barbed fence, were sent to three-day police custody for interrogation. Balwinder’s two sons Harbhej Singh, alias Bheja, and Gurbhej Singh were in the Amritsar Central Jail in drug-related cases.

Harbhej Singh was arrested by the Special Task Force, Mohali, with drugs in November 2021 while he had three cases registered against him under the Prisons Act for allegedly trying to sneak prohibited material, including drugs, into the jail. Similarly, six months later his brother Gurbhej was arrested by the Mohali police in July 2022.

A police official privy to the investigations revealed that the police were probing the hawala channel, which used to pay drug peddlers across the Indo-Pak border.

Besides the cash, the police had seized five mobile phones, besides a laptop from the residence of Balwinder Singh. “Their forensic analysis might provide some clues about the hawala channel and their links with Pakistan-based entities,” said the police official.