Remand of drug smuggler Manjit Singh Manna extended

Nikhil Bhardwaj

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, October 20

The Special Task Force wing of Ludhiana today produced notorious smuggler Manjit Singh Manna before a court which extended his police remand by one day. Earlier, the court had granted a two-day police remand which ended today.

Manna is the among the three accused who was arrested by the STF in November last year with 31 kg heroin, 6 kg ice (methamphetamine) and Rs 25 lakh drug money.

A STF probe found that despite Manna was lodged in prison, he continued to run his heroin smuggling network from the Kapurthala jail. At present, Manna is lodged in a Amritsar jail and for a few months, he also remained in the Kapurthala jail where he, along some other inmate, ran the drug network from the jail.

“When Manna was in the Kapurthala jail, he supplied around 4 kg heroin to his clients on the directions of kingpin Bedi, who is hiding in Australia. He must be having access to a mobile phone in the jail. We have brought Manna on production warrant to inquire how he was running the drug network from the jail and we are also writing to the Kapurthala jail authorities for the recovery of mobile phone,” a senior STF official said.

The kingpin of the drug cartel Tanvir Singh Bedi has been hiding in Australia and the process to extradite him to India has already been initiated by the police.

Notably, three months ago, the police had arrested smuggler Harminder Singh Bedi from Thailand. Bedi is at present in the custody of the STF for questioning. Sources said Bedi’s questioning led to the disclosures of Manna’s jail network.

STF officials said Bedi had a formula to prepare heroin by mixing various chemicals. Before his arrest from Thailand, Bedi had visited Punjab and he had reportedly prepared around 200 kg of heroin of which the STF had recovered only 31 kg while the rest either had been sold to their clients or might be concealed somewhere.

Ludhiana STF in-charge Harbans Singh said further interrogation of Manna may expose his network being operated from jail and more recovery could also be made.

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