6.5kg heroin recovered from cross-border smugglers in Batala; three arrested
Police said the accused, who have confessed to having links with some Pakistan-based drug smugglers, had been getting heroin supply from across the border in the guise of tilling the forest department’s land across Ravi
Batala Police on Thursday claimed to have unearthed a racket of heroin smuggling from Pakistan with the arrest of three persons, including a contractual employee of the forest department, and the recovery of 6.5-kg heroin. The police said a large part of the seized contraband was concealed in a tyre of a tractor that was lying abandoned in the shrubs of a forest department’s land situated across the Ravi river near Kakkar village of Ajnala sub-division in Amritsar. The village falls along the India-Pakistan border.
The arrested accused are Sarabjit Singh aka Sabha, and Surjit Singh aka Billu of Kakkar village, and Jagtar Singh aka Daya (employee of the forest department) of Rania village, which too falls under the Ajnala sub-division.
Police said the accused, who have confessed to having links with some Pakistan-based drug smugglers, had been getting heroin supply from across the border in the guise of tilling the forest department’s land across Ravi.
Addressing a press conference in Batala, inspector general of police (IGP-Amritsar range) SPS Parmar said the trio were arrested at a barricade at the Bhagat Singh Chowk in Fatehgarh Churrian. “At the time of the accused’s arrest, 157gm of heroin and an electronic scale were recovered from their possession. During interrogation, the accused confessed that they had been in contact with some Pakistani smugglers. They also told the police that they have hidden a large quantity of heroin near the border,” said the IGP.
SSP Rashpal Singh said after the confession, a search operation was launched across the Ravi River and along the international border in Kakkar village with BSF officials.
“We recovered 16 packets of heroin weighing around 5.4-kg from the tyre of Holland company hidden in the shrubs on forest department land. We also seized four more packets weighing 1-kg from the shrubs,” said the SSP.
Sources said a few days ago, the accused took a mechanic across the Ravi river for concealing the consignment in the tractor’s tyre. The tractor was to be transported in a boat from across the Ravi to Kakkar village. Police added one of the accused Surjit Singh was expert in rowing a raft. The trio had been getting information of the heroin from Pakistan-based smugglers though WhatsApp calls.
The accused have been booked Sections 23 (wrongful gain) and others of the IPC at Fatehgarh Churrian police station.