Huge quantity of poppy husk, illicit liquor, heroin seized; four nabbed

The Ludhiana (rural) police claimed to have seized a large haul of drugs and narcotics, link of which with the Ludhiana (West) byelection can’t be ruled out.

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The police seized 140 kg of poppy husk, 72 bottles of illicit liquor and 76 gm of heroin during a drive on Friday.

In the first incident registered at the Hathur police station, the suspect, identified as Sukhchain Singh, alias Chaina, of Chakar village in Ludhiana district, who is already facing a similar case, was nabbed when he was carrying 140 kg of poppy husk in his car near a bridge on the outskirts of Chakar village in wee hours of Friday.

The Raikot Sadar police had arrested Sandeep Singh of Gondwal village and recovered 72 bottles of different brands of countrymade liquor, which were concealed at deserted places on the outskirts of the village.

Harpreet Singh of Galib Kalan was nabbed while carrying 70 gm of heroin in his scooter, which was intercepted by ASI Sukhdev Singh on Friday. In another incident, 6 gm of heroin was recovered from a drug peddler, Vijay Singh, of Abbhupura village in the Sidhwan Bet area.

SSP Ankur Gupta said police personnel, supervised by DSP (D) Inderjit Singh Boparai, DSP Raikot Harjinder Singh and SHO Hathur Kuljinder Singh Grewal, had nabbed a drug peddler during a special naka at the Drain Bridge, Chakar, as a part of the night domination surveillance programme during the wee hours on Friday.

The contraband was being smuggled under the guise of agricultural products packed in bags kept in the car.

DSP (D) Inderjit Singh Boparai said Chaina was interrogated by a joint team of the Hathur police and the CIA, Jagraon, for establishing links of the seized consignment.

Though the police are yet to ascertain the modus operandi of the suspect held with poppy husk, it is suspected that he had been running the illicit trade for a long period and was booked under similar case by the Hathur police in 2017.

“Though we are yet to ascertain the identity of his other accomplices, we expect to reach some big fish on the basis of information given by him,” he said.

The investigating officials did not rule out possibilities of delivery of the consignments for distribution among voters and supporters of some candidates contesting the byelection in the Ludhiana (West) Assembly segment.