Punjab ASI loots Rs 1-cr gold from smuggler, caught during sale bid

Tribune News Service

Nitin Jain

Ludhiana, September 27

A Punjab Police Assistant Sub-Inspector was arrested along with his four accomplices here on Tuesday night for allegedly looting smuggled gold worth around Rs 1 crore from near the international airport in Mohali around 10 days ago. The ASI, Kamal Kishore (43), was posted at the CIA office in Gurdaspur.

Claiming to have busted an international smuggling racket, the Ludhiana police commissionerate said half of the gold (825 grams) smuggled from Dubai, Rs 8 lakh cash, two mobile phones, a Mahindra Scorpio and the smuggler’s passport had been recovered from the five accused. This was the second major gold recovery made by the commissionerate within a fortnight after having seized 1,230 grams of gold worth about Rs 74 lakh and a pistol on September 9.

Commissioner of Police Mandeep Singh Sidhu said that during an investigation into the previous seizure, they had received leads about the second gold consignment that was to be smuggled from Dubai through a Haryana resident, Sumit Kumar.

“We laid a trap here late last evening when the ASI and the other accused came to sell a part of the looted gold. On being caught, the accused revealed that they had sold the remaining gold in Gurdaspur a few days ago. They had looted the gold paste from the smuggler outside the airport in Mohali around 10 days ago,” said Sidhu.

During preliminary interrogation, it was revealed that ASI Kishore had got a tip-off about the smuggling racket from a Gurdaspur resident, Neha, who was employed as a cook with the smuggling racket kingpin Puneet, alias Pankaj, who was based in Dubai.

The other four accused are Satnam Singh, alias Sodhi (53); Harjinder Singh, alias Babba (36); Harpreet Singh, alias Babbu (36); and Neha (21), all residents of Gurdaspur.

Kingpin’s cook spills secret to cop

• The gold was smuggled from Dubai in the form of paste; looted outside Mohali airport
• The accused ASI got to know about it from the smuggling racket kingpin’s cook
• The accused sold part of the smuggled gold in Gurdaspur

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