Woman drug peddler with eight NDPS cases re-arrested in Nurpur

In a major crackdown on the drug trade, the Damtal police have once again arrested a notorious woman drug peddler in Bhadroya, a village under the Nurpur police district. The accused, Sonia, wife of Narinder Kumar, has been caught for the ninth time in the past seven years for possessing and selling heroin (chitta).

Acting on a tip-off, the police raided the house where Sonia had been staying with her sister. During the search, officers recovered 7.25 gm of chitta from her possession. She was immediately taken into custody and a case under Section 21 of the NDPS Act was registered against her. Later, she was produced in court and remanded to police custody for further investigation.

During the preliminary inquiry, officers discovered that Sonia had been actively involved in drug peddling since 2018. She had been arrested eight times before, with cases registered against her by the Nurpur, Damtal and Pathankot (Punjab) police under the NDPS Act. Her first arrest took place in May 2018 when Nurpur police caught her with chitta. In 2019, she was apprehended twice — once in March and again in October — both times by the Damtal police. Even after securing bail, she resumed her illegal activities, shifting her operations to neighbouring Pathankot in Punjab. In February 2020, Pathankot police arrested her with chitta, followed by another arrest by Damtal police in September of the same year. She was caught three more times in Pathankot — twice in 2021 (July and September) and again in September 2023 — all under the NDPS Act.

Nurpur SP Ashok Ratan stated that Sonia had become a habitual offender and was deeply entrenched in the region’s drug trade. He further revealed that police were now investigating her immovable assets, particularly to verify whether she had constructed any structures on government land. Authorities were also preparing a proposal for her preventive detention under the Prevention of Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (PIT-NDPS) Act. Once the detention order is secured, the police plan to launch a financial investigation to trace the sources of her income and identify any illegal assets linked to drug peddling.

SP Ratan reaffirmed the district police’s commitment to eradicating drug trafficking from the region and assured that all legal measures would be taken to dismantle such criminal networks.