Narco-terror racket busted

Tribune News Service

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CHANDIGARH, AUGUST 26

The Punjab Police have busted an international narco-terror racket, linked to the banned Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF), with the arrest of wanted heroin smuggler Rajinder Singh alias Ganja alias Mithu. A police constable, who was allegedly facilitating movement of the drugs and money during the lockdown period, has also been arrested.

DGP Dinkar Gupta said Rajinder’s brother-in-law had also been arrested from Uttar Pradesh for his involvement in the racket, which has been traced to associates of a now deceased notorious terrorist Harmeet Singh alias PhD.

A .32 bore pistol and four live cartridges were recovered from the possession of Rajinder, with 530-gm heroin seized from his flat at Riverdale Aerovista, Zirakpur. A criminal case under the Arms Act and the NDPS Act has been registered at PS SSOC, SAS Nagar, against Rajinder, who has several other FIRs registered against him in various parts of Punjab. He has also been involved in several recent hawala transactions to the tune of Rs 12 crore, Gupta said.

Rajinder, who was arrested on August 19, told the police that he was associated with distribution of drugs, arranged by Navpreet Singh, alias Nav, a notorious smuggler wanted by the Punjab Police in murder and drug cases. He further confessed that he had supplied huge quantities of drugs to various smugglers in different parts of Punjab on the direction of Navpreet.

The DGP said Rajinder used to receive the drug consignments, mostly coming from Srinagar and Delhi, to distribute them further in Punjab. The funds generated out of drug business were sent back to Navpreet through hawala channels. In April 2020, the Police Commissionerate, Amritsar, had arrested Hizbul terrorist Hilal Ahmed Wagay when he came to collect drug money on the instructions of Riyaz Ahmed Naikoo, a slain Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist.

Rajinder had also made an Aadhaar card and a passport with the help of fake documents from UP and was trying to escape from India in the near future, the DGP maintained, adding that the accused had also made a lot of property in and around Chandigarh and Amritsar.