Amritsar police recover ₹59L drug money

AMRITSAR: The rural district’s police have recovered Rs 59 lakh more drug money at the instance of one of the four accused arrested on Wednesday for their alleged role in smuggling of drugs and weapons from Pakistan.

Police have also identified one Jarnail Singh of Nathupur Lodhi village as the prime accused in the case. Jarnail, according to police, has been absconding and is linked to two notorious gangsters, including Billa Mandiala, who is lodged in a jail.

The police had arrested four persons and recovered Rs 29 lakh drug money, two pistols, 12 mobile phones and two foreign SIM cards on Wednesday. Police said all the accused had been in contact with Pakistan-based elements for the smuggling of drugs and weapons from across the border.

The four arrested accused were Gurjant Singh of Nathupur village, Sukhjinder Singh of Khayala village, Mehal Singh and Tehal Singh of Lodhi Gujjar village. All the villages fall near the India-pakistan border in Ajnala sub-division of the district.

Police had procured a fourday remand of the four men.

“During the remand, the accused disclosed that on their demand, 6-kg heroin was thrown across the fence by Pakistani smugglers last week. But this consignment was seized by The Border Security Force (BSF) near Kakkar border out post (BOP). Before this, the accused had cleared a consignment of 10 kg heroin from the border,” said a senior police official involved in the investigation.

He said: “During questioning, one of the accused, Mehal Singh, told the police about the presence of more drug money at his home. During the raid, Rs 58.6 lakh was recovered.”

Deputy superintendent police (Dsp-attari) Gurpartap Singh Sahota said Jarnail Singh’s links have been traced to two gangsters—billa Mandiala and Gopy. He said Gopy is currently on bail.

He said they would bring Billa on production warrant, and their raids were also on to nab Gopy.

He said they have also nominated one Baldev Singh, alias Deba of Kakkar village, who helped the accused in the smuggling business. He said their preliminary investigation has suggested that Jarnail had also been tilling a rented agriculture land across the barbed wire fence and before the zero line.