Woman, her two sons held with "chitta", cash, jewellery

A Damtal police team raided a house at Bhadroya here and recovered 22.50 grams of heroin (chitta) from the possession of Bachni Devi and her two sons Lovejeet and Karan. The police had inputs about the involvement of the family members in drug smuggling and so planned the raid on their house.

Besides "chitta", the police team also seized ill-gotten drug money to the tune of Rs 4.70 lakh, 101.7 grams of gold jewellery, 478 grams of silver jewellery and a digital weighing machine being used in drug peddling by the accused.

The Damtal police arrested the trio and registered a case under Sections 21, 29-61-85 of the NDPS Act against them. SP, Nurpur, Ashok Rattan said that during preliminary investigation, all three accused were found to be habitual offenders and involved in drug smuggling in the area. They were out on bail and were again indulging in drug trafficking. He added that the Damtal police had recovered heroin from the possession of Bachni Devi twice in May 2019 and she was also arrested with 6.51 grams of the contraband and in November 2020, she was caught with 103.73 grams of heroin.

Similarly, the Indora and Damtal police had arrested her son Luvjeet, alias Labba, thrice with the contraband in January 2017 and November 2020 and booked him under the NDPS Act. The Indora and Damtal police had also arrested Karan, another son of Bachni Devi, thrice in the past with heroin. The SP said that the involvement of the three members of the family in drug smuggling was a matter of serious concern. He added that the police would also conduct a financial investigation into their dealings and take appropriate action under the Prevention of Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (PIT-NDPS) Act against them.