Punjab police caught 327 drug smugglers in the past week
Darpan News Desk IANS, 23 Aug, 2022 10:55 AM
Chandigarh, Aug 23 (IANS) The Punjab police on Tuesday said it arrested 327 drug smugglers or suppliers after registering 230 first information reports (FIRs) under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act in the state in the last one week.
The police arrested 43 proclaimed offenders and absconders in NDPS Act cases during this period.
Inspector General of Police (IGP) Sukhchain Singh Gill, while addressing his weekly press conference here, said they have recovered 11.73 kg heroin, 20 kg opium, 9 kg ganja, 5.76 quintals of poppy husk, and 28,000 tablets of Pharma opioids, besides recovering Rs 20 lakh drug money after carrying out cordon and search operations in drug-affected areas.
Talking about new trends in drug smuggling, he said the police have tightened the noose around the drug smugglers. Now the drug peddlers and suppliers are adopting new ways to evade arrest by selling drugs in little quantities, in milligrams and grams so that they could not be detected.
"One latest trend has come to fore wherein drug smugglers smuggled drugs by concealing them in onion-loaded trucks to avoid the stink," he added.
Recently, it has also been observed that supply from Abohar and Ferozepur sides is increasing and drug suppliers are now preferring public transport to smuggle drugs, to avoid checking, the IGP said. He added that intoxicant tablets are majorly being supplied from the Uttar Pradesh and Delhi side from Saharanpur, Ghaziabad, Bahadurgarh via Haryana, while opium and poppy husk are mostly coming from Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan side.
Gill said the state police have also waged a war against anti-social elements and gangsters.
The police have busted 67 criminal modules and arrested 301 gangsters, besides neutralizing two dreaded gangsters in an encounter and recovered 640 weapons along with 174 magazines and 3,364 cartridges from their possession.
Besides, the police have recovered seven hand grenades and five IEDs, he added.
For last three days, Rahul Gandhi was grilled for about 30 hours in total by a three-member ED team. On Wednesday, the Congress leader's questioning ended at around 10 p.m. but he left the ED headquarters at around 11:45 p.m.
The police have identified four shooters behind the crime, an official statement said. Moosewala, who left his house at around 5 p.m. on May 29 along with two persons -- Gurwinder Singh and Gurpreet Singh (cousin) -- was shot dead by unidentified people.
The official added that a case was registered on September 25, 2020, against the private firm and others on the allegations of causing losses to the tune of Rs 2040.63 crore to the consortium of 12 banks led by PNB.
The CBI had registered a case on April 13, 2016 on the request of Chandigarh Administration and had taken over the investigation of the FIR earlier registered at Police Station, Sector-26, Chandigarh.
Bishnoi, who was brought from New Delhi after procuring the transit remand from Patiala House court, was produced in a Mansa court in Punjab at around 4 a.m. amid high-level security after his medical check-up.
