Another drone supplier held from Jammu

MODULE WAS BUSTED WITH THE SEIZURE OF 2 HIGHLY SOPHISTICATED CHINESE-MADE DRONES, AND THE ARREST OF AN ARMY NAIK AND TWO SMUGGLERS

Amritsar

The Amritsar-rural police on Monday arrested a Jammu-based man, Sarvodhya Rakesh Bihari, in connection with the narco-terror module it busted on January 11. This is the seventh arrest in the case and comes the day after the rural police arrested one Rishab Kumar, a student, from Ghaziabad. Police claim Rishab had sold a drone to one of the key accused of the module, army naik Rahul Chauhan, through an online e-commerce company.

Sarvodhya had been working as supplier of drones, and was in contact with a Delhi-based company that had been supplying the drones without following guidelines of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), police say.

The module was busted with the seizure of two highly sophisticated Chinese-made drones, and the arrest of an army naik and two smugglers Dharminder Singh and Balkar Singh involved in smuggling of weapons and narcotics across the border.

Balkar was arrested from Amritsar jail. He was allegedly operating from jail, as police also recovered a mobile phone.

The seizure, resulting from targeted and intelligence-led search operations, also included drone batteries, custom-made drone containers, two walkietalkie sets and ₹6.2 lakh believed to be proceeds of drugs, and the magazine of an INSAS Rifle.

A senior police official said, “During questioning, Kumar told us that he had purchased a drone from Sarvodhya; we apprehended him from Jammu.” He, however, refused to disclose the company’s name, saying it would hamper investigation. “We are close to breaking the chain of the sale and purchase business of drones. More arrests are expected in a day or two,” he added.

Preliminary investigations had confirmed that the armyman, Chauhan, was involved in operating drone sorties across the border for picking up heroin as well as weapons from Pakistan. He and his aides were in direct contact with Pakistani smugglers on encrypted OverThe-Top (OTT) platforms, police had said, adding that the plan was to send one of the walkietalkie sets across the border to aid in two-way communication. On January 14, police had brought Lakhwinder and Swaran from Amritsar jail after their names cropped up during questioning.