Punjab Police Bust Narco Racket, 3 Held From Amritsar

Chandigarh, Jun 22 (PTI) Punjab Police on Saturday said it has busted a narcotics and organised crime nexus backed by USA-based smuggler Sarwan Singh alias Bhola Havelian and arrested its three operatives from Amritsar's Ajnala.

Director General of Police (DGP), Punjab, Gaurav Yadav said the nexus was busted in a close coordination with the central agencies.

Those arrested have been identified as Karanjit Singh of Khalra in Tarn Taran, Akash Seth alias Raghu and Sukhdeep Singh, both residents of Raja Sansi in Amritsar.

Police also recovered six pistols along with six live cartridges and 10 magazines, 200 grams of heroin and an electronic weighing machine from their possession.

Notably, Bhola Havelian, who is carrying Rs 2 lakh reward on his arrest, is a brother of infamous drug smuggler Ranjeet alias Cheeta and is wanted in a 532-kg heroin haul case, in which the latter was arrested in May 2020.

Cheeta was the mastermind behind the smuggling of 532 packets of heroin which were seized by Customs department at ICP Attari in July 2019 and is being investigated by the National Investigation Agency.

DGP Yadav said following inputs that associates of alias Bhola have retrieved the weapon consignment and they are going to deliver it to someone, police conducted a special checking in the jurisdiction of Ajnala, and arrested the trio.

Later, police teams on the disclosure of Akash alias Raghu also recovered 200 grams heroin, six live cartridges and electronic weighing machine from the location pinpointed by him, he added.

The DGP said that as per preliminary investigations, the accused person was directly in touch with USA-based smuggler Bhola and was supplying weapons and heroin.

Further investigations are going on to establish backward and forward linkages in this case, he added.

Sharing more details, Senior Superintendent of Police (Amritsar Rural) Satinder Singh said the probe also revealed that Akash alias Raghu's cousin Sanjam alias Mathi of Ajnala, presently lodged in Amritsar Jail, introduced him to Bhola Havelian.

"We will bring Sanjam on a production warrant for further revelations," he added.

He said that Police teams are tracing the financial trails of the accused persons to unravel the entire nexus and more arrests are expected in this case. (Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Republic and is published from a syndicated feed.)