Ludhiana: Sarpanch, villagers force police to act against drug suppliers

LUDHIANA: The sarpanch and residents of Mandiani village of Mullanpur Dakha came out on roads seeking action against drug menace, following which the Dakha police conducted raids at five houses of a family on Tuesday. They recovered cash, mobile phones and other stuff which were suspected to have been mortgaged by drug addicts in exchange of drugs.
A day later, the police registered a case against 16 persons and rounded up five of them, including three women. A video of the raid also went viral on the social media with village sarpanch from Congress Gurpreet Kaur raising concern over the issue. In the video, she is also seen saying that anyone found sheltering or helping the accused in getting bail would be disowned.

Inspector general (Ludhiana range) S P S Parmar, senior superintendent of police (Ludhiana rural) Deepak Hilori and deputy superintendent of police (Dakha) Jashandeep Singh also visited the village on Wednesday. IG Parmar appreciated the role of the Congress sarpanch and motivated villagers to keep informing the police about drugs.
Speaking to TOI, sarpanch Gurpreet Kaur said, “There are five houses of a family in our village who were into drug peddling. Earlier, they had been involved in smuggling of poppy and had started smuggling of heroin for past some time. Heroin had claimed at least lives of 15 youngsters in our village. Now, the situation had gone out of control as drug addicts from other districts too had started coming to our village to get drugs. At least 1,000 drug addicts were coming to our village on a daily basis. The matter had been brought to the knowledge of the administration, but nothing had been done. Therefore, we had to stage a protest at Jagraon-Ludhiana road on Tuesday.” The sarpanch also said that these peddlers used to threaten the residents who used to object to their activities.
“When cops came to us to find out the reason for the protest, we asked them to accompany us to check the houses in our village that were involved in drug smuggling. There were many such commodities found from the houses which were mortgaged by the addicts to get drugs. We, the village residents, are united against drugs. We will make sure that whoever tries to help the drug peddlers in getting bail or any other way has to leave the village,” the sarpanch added.
IG (Ludhiana range) S P S Parmar said, “I appreciated the efforts of the village sarpanch and residents. They raised an issue after which the police took immediate action. In fact, I had a meeting with the officials and we are now starting a campaign against drug menace with the help of villagers. We have 277 villages in Ludhiana rural. Within one week, our officials will visit all these villages to have a meeting with their sarpanches to get first-hand information related to drugs.”
The DSP (Dakha) said, “When the police had raided the houses on Tuesday, no drugs were recovered from there. There were three people, who were history-sheeters and thus preventive action was taken against them. On Wednesday, the police lodged an FIR against at least 16 persons of which five have been detained, including three women. They are being questioned for the recovery of drugs.”