Arrest of Pilibhit SSB personnel: ‘Nexus’ between security personnel and drug peddlers under probe

A senior SSB official confirmed on anonymity that an SSB personnel of the 49th battalion in Pilibhit was taken into custody for his alleged involvement in drug peddling

The arrest of a Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) personnel in Pilibhit district by Haryana Special Task Force (STF) on Monday, hints at a major nexus between international drug peddlers and security personnel guarding porous international borders. The SSB guards the Indo-Nepal border adjoining Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

The Haryana police took the personnel to Rohtak, where an FIR was already lodged against him at a local police station in the matter.

A senior SSB official confirmed on anonymity that an SSB personnel of the 49th battalion in Pilibhit was taken into custody for his alleged involvement in drug peddling. The Haryana police took the personnel to Rohtak, where an FIR was already lodged against him at a local police station in the matter.

The office of IG, SSB Ranikhet Frontier, under whose jurisdiction the SSB-Pilibhit come, however, did not issue a comment on the issue when approached.

Sharing further details, a local cop of Pilibhit, who assisted the Haryana police in the arrest of the SSB personnel, said the latter had arrested three persons--two officials/soldiers of another paramilitary force (India Reserve Battalion) in Manesar, Gurugram identified as Raj Kumar and Manjit Kumar, and a Bihar SSB personnel Devendra Kumar—and seized 470 grams of smack from them near Delhi bypass in Rohtak on December 29.

He said the Pilibhit SSB personnel’s involvement surfaced during the interrogation of Devendra Kumar, who had confirmed his links with international drug traffickers operating on the porous Indo-Nepal border and supplied the psychotropic substances in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Punjab and Delhi.