Major cross-border heroin smuggling racket busted

In a major crackdown on smuggling of narcotics and weapons from across the border from Pakistan, Punjab Police’s Intelligence Wing has busted a gang of heroin smugglers and arrested four persons, including an ex-Army man.

The suspects have named one BSF constable, posted at the border, and two other associates as being involved in the smuggling racket.

“BSF authorities have been informed about the constable’s active collusion and conspiracy in drug smuggling and they have advised to initiate necessary action against him,” said the a police spokesperson on Tuesday.

The Police has seized 14.8 kgs of heroin, valuing approximately Rs 74 crores in the international market, along with one .30 bore pistol from the suspects.

A case (FIR no.17 dated July 1, 2018) under sections 21, 25, 29 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, and section 25 of the Arms Act has been registered at police station State Special Operations Cell Amritsar.

The arrests were made after the information received by the State Special Operations Cell (SSOC) that some drug smugglers from Amritsar or Tarn Taran were in contact with Pak-based smugglers and were indulging in heroin smuggling through the Ramdas sector of the Indo-Pak border.

The suspects include Amritsar-resident Tarwinder Singh, an ex-serviceman who served in the Indian Army (13 Sikh) as a sepoy for 16 years before retiring on pension in 2016). Others have been identified as Sukhraj Singh alias Raja from Amritsar, Gurlal Singh from Tarn Taran, and Sarabjit Singh from Tarn Taran.

During preliminary investigations, the accused disclosed that they were successful in bringing drug consignment from across-the-border in Ramdass sector during the intervening night of June 29-30, 2018.

They revealed that one BSF constable, Chenthilraj Kanagaraj (no 041465015), who was on duty on the border on that night, was part of their conspiracy to smuggle heroin from Pakistan to India and had actively colluded with them.

They have also disclosed the names of two other associates — Bikramjit Singh from Amritsar, and Gurjant Singh from Amritsar — who were also part of the team that had retrieved heroin consignment from the border. Efforts are afoot to apprehend these two, the police said.

“Investigations have revealed that Tarwinder Singh, Bikramjit Singh and Chenthilraj Kanagaraj (CK Raj) were in touch with Pakistan-based smugglers for quite some time. They were using different social media apps to communicate amongst themselves and with their Pakistan based associates,” police spokesperson said.

It has been learnt that Bikramjit Singh had been earlier arrested in a heroin related NDPS case in 2017 and had been in Jail from where he was bailed out in September 2017, the police said.

The BSF authorities have been intimated about the role of the BSF constable, Chenthilraj Kanagaraj (CK Raj) to ensure proceeding under the BSF Act. He would soon be taken on police remand and prosecuted by SSOC Amritsar for his active role in smuggling of heroin, said the spokesperson.