E-Paper
Amritsar: Three jailed in cross-border drug smuggling case
The accused are Joginder Singh, alias Shammi, and Nishan Singh and his father Baldev Singh. All the accused are residents of Ferozepur district. A local court in Amritsar has pronounced 10 to 12 years of rigorous imprisonment to three persons allegedly involved in cross-border drug smuggling nexus
A local court in Amritsar has pronounced 10 to 12 years of rigorous imprisonment and ₹3 lakh fine to three persons allegedly involved in cross-border heroin smuggling nexus that was busted in 2017.
The accused are Joginder Singh, alias Shammi, and Nishan Singh and his father Baldev Singh. All the accused are residents of Ferozepur district.
The case dates back to October 27, 2017, when a team of the special task force (STF) wing of the Punjab Police arrested four accused—Nishan, his father Baldev, Harmesh Singh and Krishna Kumari—with 6 kg of heroin and ₹20 lakh drug money after getting a tip-off. Krishna Kumari is sister of Joginder Singh, who was arrested on September 29, 2017, after having an encounter with the police in Tarn Taran. Three cops were injured in the encounter and the police had recovered ₹35 lakh drug money from him.
The then assistant inspector general (AIG), STF, Rashpal Singh had said Joginder’s entire family was in drug trade. Joginder’s brother Nirvail Singh was lodged in Faridkot jail and was running the network from inside the prison, the AIG had said.
According to police, the smugglers used foreign SIM cards to operate their network through social networking sites, such as WhatsApp and Facebook. These smugglers were using SIMs of Australia and Thailand.
Investigations carried out by the STF had revealed that the smugglers had joined hands with gangsters. The smugglers were providing them contraband and arms while gangsters, on the other hand, were collecting drug money on their behalf.
Rashpal, who is not posted as commandant in Amritsar, said, “During the investigation of the case the total recovered drug money reached ₹1 crore. Similarly, 2 kg more heroin was recovered during further investigation. All the accused had been in touch with Pakistan-based drug smugglers.”
He said, “Nishan and Baldev have been awarded 12 years of imprisonment and ₹1.20 lakh fine each. Joginder has been sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment and ₹1 lakh fine by an Amritsar court.”
He said all the accused were booked under Sections 21-85-27-A-29 of the NDPS Act at the STF’s Amritsar police station.
The status of the other accused involved in the case was not immediately cleared.
