Facing 20 years of RI, Narwal fails to surrender in court

Davinder Singh Narwal, who was sentenced to 20 years of rigorous imprisonment (RI) in an NDPS case by the Additional Sessions Judge in October 2023, failed to surrender before the Punjab and Haryana High Court after his interim bail was recalled.

Narwal had been accused of smuggling 925 kg of ketamine using seven cauldrons through Jalandhar-based courier service to Canada in June 2018.

He was granted interim bail on July 22 as he was to undergo a spinal surgery. The high court had recalled the order of grant of his bail on October 13 and had asked him to surrender on October 24. Since he did not surrender, Special Judge Dinesh Kumar Wadhwa hearing the ED case against him ordered issuing of non-bailable warrants for November 11.

Narwal’s son Roy Bahadur Narwal has already been declared Proclaimed Offender in the case. Both of them hail from Sriganganagar but are citizens of Canada. Their properties in Rajasthan have already been attached in the ED case, said Niranjan Singh, former Deputy Director, ED, who is appearing as witness in his case.

The ED’s case is based on the police case against the father-son duo. The duo and 10 others, including Phagwara-based Chunni Lal Gaba, Harmesh Kumar Gaba, Suresh Kumar, Sudesh Rani, Khushant Gaba, Gurmesh Gaba, Gurjeet Gaba, Ajay Jain, Rekha Gaba and Mahesh Kumar Gaba had been chargesheeted by the ED in 2021 for the alleged violation of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

Like Narwal, two other bigwigs accused in the ED cases, including Anoop Singh Kahlon, and Varinder Singh too had earlier not surrendered after procuring bail.