Chandigarh, Oct 5 (IANS) Punjab Police on Wednesday busted a drone-based arms smuggling module with the arrest of two people, including an undertrial.
The arrested have been identified as Jaskaran Singh, lodged at Sub Jail in Goindwal Sahib, and Rattanbir Singh, who is out on bail.
Police recovered 10 foreign-made pistols, including five .30 bore (made in China) and five 9mm (made in the US) along with eight magazines from both of them, besides a mobile phone concealed by Jaskaran Singh in his barrack.
AIG Counter Intelligence, Amritsar, Amarjit Singh Bajwa said Jaskaran Singh was brought on a production warrant in a case pertaining to the NDPS Act, registered in August.
During questioning, he confessed that he was using a mobile phone in jail to contact Pakistan-based smugglers through WhatsApp for smuggling of narcotics and arms and ammunition from Pakistan via drones.
The AIG said for this purpose the accused was taking the help of Rattanbir Singh, who used to retrieve the consignments dropped via drones from different border areas.
Rattanbir Singh is also a co-accused in various NDPS cases with Jaskaran Singh.
Bajwa said one consignment of five .30 bore pistols along with four magazines was recovered from the location revealed by Jaskaran Singh on the Taran Taran-Ferozepur road, where Rattanbir Singh had concealed them.
He admitted that Pakistan was attempting to revive militancy in Punjab and thus, everyone should be wary of all of its overtures, no matter how grand they appear to be
Navjot Singh Sidhu, who also skipped today's event as he had been advised by the doctor not to speak, was away to Apollo Hospital, New Delhi, for his medical follow-up.
Patel's resignation comes in the backdrop of the ongoing tiff between the government and the central bank over the liquidity and credit crunch in the economy that provoked an extraordinary meeting of the RBI board on November 19.
With RBI Governor Urjit Patel putting in his papers, his immediate predecessor Raghuram Rajan on Monday said "all Indians" should be concerned as strength of institutions is important for growth and development.
Asthana, a 1984-batch Gujarat cadre officer, had headed the Special Investigation Team of the CBI after Mallya escaped from India in 2016 and keenly pursued his extradition from the United Kingdom.
