Inter-state drug cartel busted

Chandigarh, July 23

The police have busted an inter-state drug cartel and seized over 7 lakh tablets and injections of pharmaceutical opioids during a raid at a godown in Saharanpur district of Uttar Pradesh.

The police have arrested the main supplier, Ashish Vishkarma, a resident of Khalasi Line, in Saharanpur. The accused had been supplying opioids in Fatehgarh Sahib, SAS Nagar, SBS Nagar, Rupnagar, Patiala and Ludhiana from the past five years.

Ropar Range DIG Gurpreet Singh Bhullar said they recovered 4.98 lakh tablets of lomotil, 97,200 tablets of alprazolam, 75,840 proxyvon capsules, 21,600 vials of avil, 16,725 injections of buprenorphine and 550 tablets of tramadol.

The DIG said after recovery of 175 injections of buprenorphine and 175 vials of avil from Sukhwinder Singh and Harjaspreet Singh, both residents of Chamkaur Sahib on July 14, a team from the Crime Investigation Agency (Sirhind) conducted the raid in Saharanpur. Fatehgarh Sahib SSP Dr Ravjot Grewal said Vishkarma has been brought to Punjab after completing all the legal formalities.

She said the accused had been booked under Sections 22C, 61 and 85 of the NDPS Act and they were investigating the matter further.

Meanwhile, Vishkarma is wanted by the Fatehgarh police in at least four commercial cases registered under the NDPS Act in Amloh, Sirhind, Badali Ala Singh and Khamano.