Police freeze drug peddlers' properties worth Rs 1.63 crore

Tribune News Service

Nikhil Bhardwaj

Ludhiana, March 24

The Police Commissionerate, Ludhiana, have frozen properties valued at Rs 1.63 crore of three drug smugglers.

The properties include both commercial shops and residential houses.

Commissioner of Police (CP) Mandeep Singh Sidhu said the police had adopted a policy of zero tolerance against drug smugglers and seized the property of three peddlers arrested in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) cases.

He said the properties of Hoshiar Singh of Lalton Kalan, including three residential houses and a shop in Lalton Kalan, worth

Rs 1.08 crore, a medical shop, two vacant shops on 100 sq yards belonging to Satnam Singh of New Sunder Nagar, and a house of Vikas Kumar, a resident of Ashiana Colony was frozen by the police.

Sidhu credited ADCP-2 Suhail Qassim Mir for pursuing the properties’ attachment process in minimum possible time.

Sidhu said the police had invoked the Section 68-F of the NDPS Act to freeze the properties. Now, the freezing of the properties of the accused would deter them from further indulging in such activities and it would also send a strong message to other peddlers in society.

The Commissioner of Police said property seizures would break the backbone and the economic support system of the drug peddlers.

“It is just a start, in fact we are pursuing many more such cases with the authorities concerned and will freeze more properties of smugglers worth crores in coming days. We have already compiled lists of properties of other smugglers,” Sidhu added.