Hakikat Rai Singh (extreme right) retired as DSP in 2015. (Express photo)
A retired DSP of Punjab Police was among the three men arrested with 15 kg opium by the anti-drug special task force (STF) on Friday. The accused were produced in court and remanded in three days’ police custody. Police also recovered a .32 bore revolver and 18 live cartridges from the accused.
Those arrested were identified as Hakikat Rai Singh, who retired as DSP in 2015, Swaran Singh, a resident of Naraingarh, and Bikram Nath, a resident of Badoshi Kalan village in Fatehgarh Sahib district. The accused were arrested from near Phase 3/5 light point while bringing liquid opium from Jharkhand.
Harpreet Singh, the AIG of STF, said Bikram heads Dera Baba Jaswant Nath at Badoshi Kalan. He added that Hakikat was posted as Station House Officer (SHO) of several police stations in Mohali and he played an important role in solving the murder case of Sukhwinderjeet Singh by arresting the latter’s wife, Neki Nalwa, and her friend Himmat Singh alias Brandy.
Harpreet also said that the STF was tipped off about the accused supplying opium in their area and they were coming from Jharkhand, following which the STF set up a naka and arrested the trio. “Swaran Singh was driving the car. When our team stopped him, the accused said that they were going to Fatehgarh Sahib. On checking the vehicle, our team found the opium in a plastic container,” he added.
Harpreet further disclosed that during interrogation, Bikram revealed that he went to the dera in 2006 when he was 14 and started living there and had been smuggling opium since then. Bikram also told the STF that both Hakikat and Swaran used to visit his dera and he began to smuggle opium with their help.
A case under relevant sections of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act and Arms Act has been filed against the trio at the STF PS in Phase 4.