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14 years of ‘business’: Drug smuggler Zeera has assets worth ₹3 crore
A-category peddler had been evading arrest since 2004, when he escaped from Rajasthan police custody.
‘A’ category drug smuggler Jagir Singh Zeera, who had been evading arrest for the past 14 years and was finally arrested on Thursday, has made assets worth ₹3 crore from drug smuggling, the police said here on Friday.
As per information, Zeera confessed to have property in different districts of the state and cash in bank accounts of family members during interrogation by the district’s counter-intelligence wing.
HPS Khakh, counter-intelligence AIG, who led the operations against drug smugglers on Thursday, said that he has confessed to having a 10-marla double-storey house worth ₹40 lakh and two shops worth ₹5 lakh in Dashmesh Nagar, Jalandhar, a 6-marla plot worth ₹30 lakh in the commercial area of the Leather Complex here. Similarly, a 10-marla double-storey flat at the Friends Colony in Ludhiana has a market value of around ₹50 lakh, a double-storey house at his native village on 20-marla land is around ₹40 lakh and a 5-acre land in Moga district has an estimated market value of ₹75 lakh.
Moreover, Zeera has also told the police that he had deposited about ₹50 lakh in various bank accounts, including ₹20 lakh in his wife’s account.
“On Friday, we produced him in a court and took him on seven-day police remand. We will continue to interrogate him on his business links and other properties, if any, made during these years,” Khakh said.
Zeera, a native of Daulewal village, Moga, was arrested on Thursday when he was carrying 55 bags of poppy husk (each bag weighing 40 kg) in a truck (RJ07G4392) near the Wadala Chowk here. One illegal pistol along with 5 live cartridges was also recovered from him.
The bags were concealed under 200 bags of powder, which is required in the manufacture of slippers (chappals) and have a pungent smell. It makes it difficult to notice that poppy husk is hidden under the powder bags .
Khakh said that he was wanted by the police of different districts in more than drug 10 cases. “Zeera was declared a proclaimed offender in many cases and had been continuously shifting base after leaving his village in 2004.”
He said that in 2004, the Rajasthan police had arrested him in a smuggling case, but he managed to escape from police custody.
He used to smuggle drugs from Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan to sell them in various districts of Punjab to earn easy money.
