11 held, Rs 5 crore seized as Punjab Police busts narco-terror hawala network
The Anti-Narcotic Task Force (ANTF) of the Punjab Police with the support of the central agencies has arrested 11 persons and seized foreign currencies amounting to Rs 5.09 crore, DGP Gaurav Yadav said here on Monday.
With this, the police have busted a narco-terror hawala network and the mastermind of this racket was found to be in contact with Pakistani drug smuggler.
Among those arrested are five drug smugglers, three drug hawala money couriers and three hawala traders, he said.
This major blow to the narco-terrorism hawala network comes amidst the ongoing anti-drugs campaign ‘Yudh Nashian Virudh’ launched by the Punjab Government.
The arrested drug smugglers have been identified as Harjinder Singh alias Ajay (26) of Ram Talai, Amritsar; Harmanjit Singh alias Harry (27) of Guru Nanak Colony, Amritsar; Sagar (28) of Chheharta, Amritsar; Lavdeep Singh (30) alias Lala of Husanpura Kalan, Batala and Harbhaj Singh (30) alias Bheja of Kakkar, Amritsar, said an official statement.
While drug hawala money couriers have been identified as Saurav alias Saurav Mahajan (24) of Joda Phatak, Amritsar; Tanush (28) of Ghah Mandi Chowk, Amritsar and Harminder Singh (28) alias Harry of Damganj, Amritsar.
The arrested hawala traders have been identified as Ashok Kumar Sharma (60), an owner of Phagwara-based Sharma Forex Money Changer, and his accomplices Rajesh Kumar (50) of Mutiarpur Mohalla in Phagwara and Amit Bansal alias Sunil (47) of Sukhchain Nagar in Phagwara, it said.
DGP Yadav said the development came following two months of meticulous investigations and sustained follow-up of backward and forward linkages in the arrest of two individuals Harjinder Singh alias Ajay and Harmanjit Singh alias Harry after seizing 263 g heroin and Rs 5.60 lakh drug money from their possession on January 21.
Yadav said during the investigations in this case police teams from ANTF arrested three hawala money couriers — Saurav Mahajan, Tanush and Harminder alias Harry — on the very next day, and seized Rs 47.50 lakh drug money, besides impounding their SUV vehicle.
Following the trail of investigations, on January 24, police teams have successfully arrested two more drug smugglers identified as Sagar and Lavdeep Singh alias Lala, and Rs 5 lakh drug money along with a scooter and 160 g heroin were seized from them, he added.
The further investigations into this case has led the police teams to expose the role of an inmate lodged in Central Jail Amritsar — Harbhaj Singh alias Bheja — who emerged as the mastermind of this racket and was found to be in contact with Pakistani drug smuggler Shahbaz from inside the jail, he said, while adding that on January 26, the accused was brought on production warrant from Central Jail Amritsar and formally arrested in this case.
Pakistani smuggler Shehbaz, a resident of village Burewal in district Narowal had illegally entered India, and FIR under relevant sections was registered against him in February 2021, following which, he had remained lodged in Central Jail, Amritsar before his deportation to Pakistan.
The DGP said that preliminary investigations have revealed that accused Harbhaj Singh and Harmanjit alias Harry were introduced to Pak-based smuggler Shehbaz, when they together were lodged in the Central Jail Amritsar.
After his release from the jail, the latter established a link with these individuals via mobile phones to run the drug smuggling business and also involved Harminder alias Harry in this business, he added.
During interrogation, arrested accused Harmanjit and Harminder revealed that they were using services of forex money exchanger in Phagwara to deposit drug money as per the instructions of Pakistani smuggler Shehbaz, he said, while adding that, police teams have nominated the owner Ashok Sharma and his accomplice Sunil in the case and arrested both of them on March 17 and March 18, respectively.
DGP Yadav said that based on technical information, police teams have also arrested Ashok Sharma’s another associate identified as Rajesh alias Bobby from his house and Rs 50.50 lakh was seized his possession.
He said that during the further course of investigations police teams have seized an additional Rs 36.59 lakh (taking total seizure of Indian currency to Rs 1.45 crore), 2,63,630 Euros, 7,000 US Dollars, 10,020 Canadian Dollars, 27,500 Pounds and 285 Dirhams, besides, seizing 372 g gold from different locations.
Apart from the SUV, police teams have also impounded their three more vehicles, he said.
The DGP said that the ANTF has also identified illegal properties of this network worth crores of rupees and the process has been initiated to freeze them under the provisions of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act.
Probe has also revealed that the network unearthed till now spans from Amritsar to Tarn Taran to Phagwara to Panchkula, he said.
“Police teams have nominated seven more persons in this case and manhunt is on to nab them,” he added.
