Kingpin of drug-peddling racket nabbed from Kullu

The Nurpur district police have unearthed an inter-district drug-peddling racket active under the jurisdiction of the Jawali police station by arresting the kingpin of the racket from Kullu district on Friday. The accused was identified as Maheshwar Singh of Manandra village near Bhuntar in Kullu district. He was nabbed after interrogation and investigation of two alleged drug peddlers in the Jawali area on October 25 last year.

Following inputs, the police had set up a naka near Batees Meel near Kotla in the Jawali sub-division that night.

Cops stopped a Mahindra XUV-300 (HP 97A-0842), but the vehicle driver on seeing the police team, sped from the place and collided with vehicles parked on the roadside. The police team chased the vehicle and stopped it at a nearby village. The driver and other car occupants tried to flee from the place, but were nabbed by the police. While checking the vehicle, the police seized 6.058 gm of charas.

The accused, identified as Arjun Singh and Vipin Kumar, residents of Samkehar village in the Jawali sub-division, were arrested by the police and a case under Sections 20,25 and 29 under the NDPS Act and Sections 109 and 324 (4) of the BNS was registered against them.

SP Nurpur Ashok Ratan said the police after conducting investigation in the case had arrested a third member of the inter-district drug racket last month who also hailed from the Jawali area.

“The three accused drug peddlers who were arrested earlier were active in drug peddling in the Jawali area in the Nurpur police district, but Maheshwar Singh who was arrested from Kullu district on Friday, is the main kingpin and supplier of drugs to Jawali’s peddlers,” he said. He called upon the people to keep a close vigil on the illegal drug peddling activities in their area and intimate the police so that drug peddling menace could be curbed.