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Fruit seller-turned-drug peddler caught with 2kg heroin in Chandigarh
41-year-old was on Chandigarh Police’s radar for past six months; is facing at least 15 cases of burglary, dacoity and drug peddling
A fruit seller who had turned to smuggling drugs for quick money and is wanted in at least 15 criminal cases has been apprehended by the Chandigarh Police.
A Class-10 dropout, who hails from Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh and now lives in Zirakpur, Amit Sharma was caught by the district crime cell of Chandigarh Police with 2.01 kg heroin.
On the police radar for around six months, the 41-year-old was arrested from near the Ram Darbar turn on Tuesday while travelling in a Honda City, bearing a Chandigarh registration number.
“We had been tracking him for the past six months after his name started cropping up frequently in most drug cases as the supplier,” said Kuldeep Singh Chahal, senior superintendent of police (SSP), Chandigarh.
“Sharma was on his way to deliver a consignment of drugs in Chandigarh and Kharar when he was arrested,” added Chahal. He was produced before the court and sent to two-day police custody.
From business to burglary, dacoity to drug smuggling, he did it all
Investigators said Sharma shifted from Saharanpur to Ambala for a better life and started selling fruits in front of the Ambala railway station.
But eyeing a luxurious lifestyle, he turned to crime in 2008-2009. Initially, he was part of a three-member gang that burgled chemist and grocery shops in Ambala, and executed dacoities.
He then graduated to selling drugs like opium and poppy husk. He would buy the drugs from Madhya Pradesh, and sell them in Ambala and adjoining areas.
At least 10 cases of burglary and dacoity, and five under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act are registered against him in Ambala alone. He is on bail in all these cases.
“Eventually, before the 2020 lockdown, he shifted to supplying heroin to make big bucks,” said a police official. Sources said he had been sourcing the heroin from Delhi.
With the drug money, he has acquired a flat and two showrooms in Zirakpur. He has rented out the showrooms and earns ₹40,000 monthly from them.
Operated mostly in Ambala belt
According to police, Sharma supplied heroin in Zirakpur in small quantities, while his base for dealing in commercial quantities was Ambala, as he was well versed with the city and the escape routes.
SSP Chahal said, “He was personally supplying drugs in different areas of Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh and Himachal Pradesh.”
In more crimes, police said Sharma had also illegally gotten married twice.
While his wife and two daughters live in Saharanpur, he secretly got married again in hopes of siring a son, and now lives in Zirakpur with his second wife and a four-month-old son.
