Punjab Police has arrested an Army jawan and 3 more persons in connection with the illegal arms and drug smuggling racket busted last week with the arrest of a BSF personnel and 3 others. The total number of persons arrested in the case so far now stands at 8, said DGP Punjab Dinkar Gupta, adding that Punjab Police was actively engaged in following the money trail to eradicate the drug menace from the state.
Giving details of the latest arrests, the DGP said that Ramandeep Singh, an Indian Army soldier, was apprehended from Bareilly (Uttar Pradesh), where he was currently posted, on the basis of disclosures made by BSF constable Sumit Kumar, who was arrested along with three accomplices last week. Ramandeep’s three accomplices, Taranjot Singh, Jagjit Singh and Satinder Singh have also been arrested and are being brought on production warrants.
According to the DGP, Ramandeep was running the drugs and weapons smuggling racket in conspiracy with Taranjot Singh and Satinder Singh. Throwing light on modus operandi of the gang, the DGP said that Sumit used to send photographs of the fencing, drug-delivery locations and others to Taranjot Singh and Satinder Singh. After the delivery of the consignment on the Indian side at a pre-determined time and place, three other accomplices of Taranjot used to collect it from Sumit Kumar. Gupta said that Jagjit Singh used to provide his Swift car to them for transport of the drug consignments.
The DGP said that, based on investigations carried out so far, these accused are suspected to have smuggled in 42 packets of heroin, a 9mm foreign-made pistol so far, adding that they had received Rs 39 lakh as drug proceeds from Pakistan-based smugglers so far. He said that out of Rs 39 lakh, Rs 32.30 lakh was received by Sumit Kumar to be distributed equally between him and Ramandeep Singh.