NARCO MODULE: SUPPLIER OF DRONES HELD
Nabbed from Ghaziabad; two Chinese drones were recovered from the armyman on January 11
CUSTOM-MADE DRONE CONTAINERS, TWO WALKIE-TALKIE SETS AND ₹6.2 LAKH WERE ALSO SEIZED ON JAN 11
AMRITSAR: Eight days after the Amritsar Rural police seized two sophisticated Chinese-made drones, and arrested an army naik and two smugglers, as part of a narco-terror module, involved in smuggling of weapons and narcotics across the Indo-Pakistan border on January 11, it arrested the sixth accused in the case, Rishab Kumar, from Ghaziabad on Sunday. Rishab sold a drone to the army naik Rahul Chauhan, police claim. SSP Vikramjit Singh Duggal confirmed Rishab’s arrest, adding that he was being questioned to know if he had sold any other drones.
On January 11, in addition to Chauhan, police had arrested Dharminder Singh and Balkar Singh, who was already in Amritsar jail. Balkar was operating from jail, as police had also recovered a mobile phone on him. The seizure on January 11, resulting from targeted and intelligence-led search operations, also included drone batteries, custom-made drone containers, two walkie-talkie sets and ₹6.2 lakh, believed to be proceeds of drugs, and the magazine of an INSAS Rifle.
On January 14, the police had also brought two convicts Lakhwinder Singh and Swaran Singh from Amritsar jail after their names had cropped up in connection with the module, during questioning of the previous accused.
Preliminary investigation had confirmed that Chauhan was directly involved in operating drone sorties across the border for picking up heroin as well as weapons from Pakistan, along with his associates in India and Pakistan. He and his accomplices were in direct contact with Pakistani smugglers on encrypted Over-The-Top (OTT) media platforms, police had said, adding that the plan was to send one of the walkie-talkie sets across the border to Pakistan.
On January 15, police had booked Chauhan’s brother Rohit Kumar, adding that the money for purchase of drones was being transferred from Rohit’s bank accounts.