Sriganganagar: Ahead of LS election, spurt in drug smuggling

Our Correspondent

Abohar, March 31

A spurt in narcotics/drugs smuggling in the past few days in Sriganganagar Lok Sabha constituency that goes to polls on April 19 and in Fazilka district where preparations for the June 1 polling were under way, has made officials tizzy.

As per information, in four of the nine Assembly segments of Sriganganagar, Sadulshahar, Sangaria and Hanumangarh of Sriganganagar parliamentary constituency, most of the miscreants arrested under the NDPS Act recently belong to Punjab. The four Assembly segments share a boundary with Abohar sub-division in Fazilka district.

In Sangaria, police seized 40.3 kg opium from a mini truck on Sunday, having Punjab registration that was returning from Hazaribagh in Jharkhand. The mini-truck was stopped for checking near Ratanpura. Two Abohar residents, identified as driver Ranveer Singh Bishnoi of Narayanpura village and conductor Mithilesh Pandey of Dharam Nagari in Abohar, were arrested. They reportedly said that opium was to be delivered to Sahdev, the former sarpanch of Mala Rampura, a village that shares boundary with Narayanpura in Abohar.

On Tuesday, a speeding pickup vehicle overturned near village Arayanwala on Hanumangarh highway. Four plastic bags were seized from the vehicle containing 76 kg poppy. Police arrested driver Beant Singh, a resident of Lehra Mohabbat in Bathinda. His accomplice, identified as Kuldeep Singh, a resident of Rampura Phul in Bathinda, managed to flee.

A day later, police stopped a mini-truck bearing Punjab registration near Hanumangarh and seized 653 kg poppy husk in 36 bags stacked under soybean sacks. Driver Gurpinder Singh and conductor Gurpreet Singh, residents of Sayan Kalan Dehlon in Ludhiana, were arrested. The estimated value of seized poppy husk is Rs 1.5 crore.

In Fazilka, 66th Battalion of BSF seized 9.7 kg heroin on Friday that was hidden in a field in Mohar Sona village near the Indo-Pak border.

Fazilka SSP Pragya Jain, who in a high-level joint meeting with Rajasthan Police officials had chalked out plans to tighten vigil, said today that 14 people had been arrested in 10 cases under the NDPS Act in the district from March 24 so far. 9.955 kg heroin, 16.5 kg poppy husk, 420 drug pills and drug money worth Rs 20,700 had been seized.

OVER 9 KG HEROIN SEIZED SINCE MARCH 24

Fazilka SSP Pragya Jain, who in a joint meeting with Rajasthan Police officials had chalked out plans to tighten vigil, said that 14 people had been arrested in 10 cases under the NDPS Act in the district from March 24 so far. She added that 9.955 kg heroin, 16.5 kg poppy husk, 420 drug pills and drug money worth Rs 20,700 had been seized.

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