Labrador helps cops sniff out drugs in Gurdaspur village

Ravi Dhaliwal
Tribune News Service
Gurdaspur, July 16

Around 5 am today, drug-sniffing Labrador “Shelly” entered the home of a youth identified as Akash. The dog had smelt something fishy and then one recovery led to the other. The police was on the trail of Akash, an NDPS offender, for the past two months, but somehow he managed to evade the police.

The SSP said the police had a tip-off that Akash would be visiting his house early this morning.

Jaura Chittran was the first village, among 22 hamlets, in the border district, where 155 cops, including one SP, three DSPs and eight SHOs, of the Gurdaspur police launched a pre-dawn raid to confiscate drugs.

The raids continued till 4pm. SSP Swarandeep Singh claimed to have found dope in a large quantity, but refused to disclose the exact nature and quantity of drugs seized. He added that the details would be disclosed “after all tainted villages were raided”.

Sources said the police, after a month-long exercise, had drawn up a list of 21 more villages, which would be searched within the next 48 hours. “We are keeping the names of the villages secret. We have learnt that smugglers were shifting contraband from one village to the other. This will not go on anymore now,” said an officer engaged in the searches.

Before commencing the operation, SP (Detective) Harvinder Singh Sandhu and the three DSPs — Rajesh Kakkar, Kulwinder Kumar and Parminder Singh — sealed all exit and entry routes.

The cops searched 170-odd houses. Officers holding walkie-talkies clambered over roof tops even as Shelly kept on sniffing one substance after the other.

Three high-end motorcycles and a car were taken into possession.

“The sense of a highly-trained dog like Shelly is thousand times stronger than a normal canine. In today’s searches, the canine turned out to be of immense help,” said SP Sandhu.