Tourist buses come under police scanner

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, December 18

Passenger video coach buses have come under the scanner after the Amritsar rural police confiscated a huge quantity of intoxicants from three persons here three days ago.

As many as 3.46 lakh sedative pills were recovered from their possession. The seizure was made following investigation in the earlier seizures of intoxicants made by the rural police in the past couple of months.

The police had arrested Navjot Singh, alias Nav, Surinder Singh, alias Sonu, both residents of Amritsar, and Dilpreet Singh of Gurdaspur during the seizure.

Investigation carried out by the police revealed that they had transported the huge consignment in a passenger video coach bus bearing registration AR-06-A-5247. The bus along with two cars was confiscated by the police.

Gaurav Toora, SP (Investigation), revealed that the police were checking the compartments of the sleeper bus to know how they managed to slip in such a huge quantity of intoxicants.

Police officials said the tourist buses could carry only personal luggage in the undercarriage but not cargo. The incident has brought to light that these tourist buses have been flouting the norms due to the lack of proper checking causing a loss of revenue to the state exchequer.

“We will take the matter at appropriate levels so that the illegal transport of goods could be checked,” Toora said.

Many tourist and luxury buses with a huge undercarriage space run from outside the Amritsar railway station for Delhi and Jammu and Kashmir daily. However, no authority spared a thought to keep an eye on them as a number of them were allegedly involved in illegal transportation of goods. The seizure was made following investigation into earlier three seizures made last month.

On November 9, the police had arrested Avtar Singh of Pakharpura village and confiscated 10,200 intoxicant tablets from his possession. His interrogation led to the arrest of Gursahib Singh of Sahnewali village and Sanjeev Kumar, alias Raja, while the police seized 11,400 intoxicants and 957 tablets from their possession, respectively.

According to the police, the accused used to supply drugs to different parts of the holy city, especially in rural belt. They smuggled intoxicants through different routes and modes. More arrests are likely to be made during the further course of investigation.