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One held with 5kg heroin in Amritsar, sent to police custody till Jan 6
Police say the accused , who hails from a village in Ferozepur , was on his way to smuggle contraband in the city
The counter intelligence (CI) wing of Punjab Police have recovered 5kg heroin with the arrest of one person during a barricading on Amritsar-Jalandhar national highway, 10kms from the district headquarters.
The accused was identified as Bhalwan Singh of Alike village falling under Ferozepur Sadar police station.
Police said the accused was on his way from Ferozepur to Amritsar for smuggling the heroin. They said the heroin, ostensibly smuggled from across the border, was to be smuggled further in metropolises and rural areas.
Police have also recovered two pistols of .30 bore along with 10 live cartridges, 2 magazines, and one black Hero Deluxe motorcycle with the apprehension of the accused.
Ketan Baliram Patil, assistant inspector general (AIG) of police, said on the basis of a tip-off, operation team of CI, Amritsar, headed by deputy superintendent of police (DSP) Balbir Singh, laid down a naka on the Amritsar-Jalandhar thoroughfare.
“We arrested the accused and have registered a case under Sections 21/25/29/61/85 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act and 25 of the Arms Act at state special operation cell (SSOC)’s Amritsar police station against the accused,” he added.
The accused was produced in a local court on Wednesday which sent him to police remand till January 6.
Patil said, “During the remand, we will find out forward-backward linkage of the accused.”
A senior police official, privy to the investigation, said preliminary investigation suggested the heroin was smuggled recently from across the border.
This is the second biggest recovery of heroin by Counter Intelligence in Amritsar in the span of two weeks. On December 19, the police had arrested six drug peddlers and recovered 15kg heroin from their possession at Ghonewal village under Ramdas police station in the district. Police had then said the arrested six men had links with three Pakistan-based smugglers and the heroin haul was smuggled using plastic pipes from across the border.
