Hit by Covid, foreign-returned man took to drug smuggling

Ludhiana: The Ludhiana unit of Special Task Force (STF) arrested a Malaysia-returned man with 2.93kg heroin on Wednesday.
The STF officials said the accused, identified as Palwinder Singh Brar, 32, of Urban Estate Phase-II of Dugri, had been settled in Malaysia, but had to return to India following lockdown due to Covid-19 pandemic. Finding survival difficult, he started peddling drugs.
Following a tip-off, Palwinder, who originally hailed from Moga, was arrested from a checkpost near Gill chowk flyover when he was going to deliver the drug consignment to his customers on a scooter. On frisking, heroin and an electronic weighing machine were recovered from under the seat of his scooter.
Additional inspector general (STF) Snehdeep Sharma said, “During interrogation, Palwinder confessed that he used to procure heroin from his brother-in-law Amandeep Jethi and his wife Tanu, who stayed in Ludhiana’s Janta Nagar area. The couple has also been nominated in the FIR.”
Inspector Harban Singh, in-charge, Ludhiana STF, said Amandeep Jethi and his wife were smugglers who allegedly provide heroin to the aides of Ludhiana jail inmate Ranjeet Singh Kali. Ranjeet had recently been booked by the STF for running a drug smuggling racket and getting drugs smuggled inside the jail.