Nurpur cops arrest drug racket kingpin from Uttarakhand

Nurpur, June 24

The Nurpur district police arrested the kingpin of a gang of inter-district drug peddlers from Badrinath in Uttarakhand last evening. Three other members of the gang are arrested in the police net.

Balbir Singh, who hailed from Mandi district, was wanted in a case under the NDPS Act registered in Jawali police station under Nurpur police district on May 23. He was working in a shop at Badrinath to evade the police.

As per information, police teams were sent to Chandigarh, Haryana and Uttarakhand after getting some leads about Balbir Singh. The accused had a criminal background and was arrested first time in 2016 with over 1 kg of ‘charas’. He was convicted under Section 20 of the NDPS Act and sentenced to 10-year imprisonment by a Mandi court in 2019. After six years in jail, he was released on bail by the Supreme Court in August last. After coming out of the jail, he again started peddling narcotics.

Nurpur SP Ashok Ratan told The Tribune that during a night naka under Jawali police station jurisdiction on May 23, the police had intercepted an car goubf from Mandi to the Jawali area. “The Jawali police had arrested car driver Ramesh Kumar of lower Ropa village in Paddar tehsil in Mandi district and recovered 12-gm cannabis from his possession. The accused booked under Sections 20, 25 and 29 of the NDPS Act was a courier, who used to deliver drugs to two drug peddlers in the Jawali area,” the SP said.

After interrogating of the car driver, the police succeeded in arresting two local suspected drug peddlers identified as Anupam of Chalwara and Vishal of Samlana village in Jawali subdivision, who had to get cannabis supply from kingpin Balbir Singh on May 23. The SP said a thorough investigation was under way.