Ex-DSP Bhola sentenced to 24-yr jail in drug case
BIG CATCH Police made the first arrest in NRI Anoop Singh Kahlon, later 26kg heroin was seized from his Zirakpur house
MOHALI: Former international wrestler and sacked deputy superintendent of police (DSP) Jagdish Bhola was on Wednesday convicted and sentenced by a special CBI court here in a multi-crore drug racket, busted by Punjab Police in 2013.
Bhola was sentenced to 24 years in jail (12, 10 and 2 years in three cases).
“The sentence will run as per Section 427 of the CrPC,” said district attorney Sanjeev Batra. As per Section 427 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, when a person undergoing imprisonment is sentenced on a subsequent conviction, his imprisonment shall commence at the expiration of the jail term to which he has been previously sentenced.
However, a defence counsel, Harish Ahuja, claimed that the sentences will run concurrently.
The court also imposed a fine of ₹2.2 lakh on the former DSP. “Bhola was convicted in three cases while acquitted in three other cases,” said special public prosecutors KS Bajwa and HS Rakkar.
Besides Bhola, CBI special judge Nirbhow Singh Gill convicted 21 other accused, including NRIs Anoop Khalon, Sukhjit Singh Sukha, Kulwinder Rocky, Kuldeep Singh, Sandeep Singh, Satinder Dhama, Bhola’s driver Davinder Singh Happy, Vsawa Singh, Amritsar-based hotelier Dev Raj Behal, New Delhi-based businessman Rakesh Sadhu, industrialists Jagjit Singh Chahal, Gurjeet Gabba, Suresh Kumar, Davinder Kant, Manpreet, Gabbar Singh, Kulbir Singh, Harpreet Singh, Baljinder Singh, Sachin Sandhu and Kulvir, in seven FIRs registered under NDPS Act in March 2013.
Dhama, an MBA graduate, who acted as a mediator in international drug deals, has been sentenced to 25 years in jail in two cases, said the district attorney.
Bhola, an Arjuna awardee, was dismissed from Punjab Police in 2012. He was arrested in November 2013 in connection with the ₹700-crore drug racket.
He was a key figure in the drug network, which was diverting chemicals meant for medicinal purposes to illegal factories that manufactured synthetic drugs and was supplying them to the international market.
In 2013, police busted the drug racket and recovered synthetic drugs, including heroin, methamphetamine, pseudoephedrine, ephedrine, opium and ₹1.91 crore, besides foreign currency and luxury cars from the accused.
The court acquitted former Akali leader Maninder Singh Bittu Aulakh and international boxer Ram Singh, who was dismissed from the Punjab Police.
PATIALA: There is no match to the ripples Bhola drug racket case had created in the Punjab politics in the recent times. The case brought a bad name to some politicians and also catapulted the drug menace issue to the forefront. The case unfolded in 2013 when a team led by IPS officer Hardial Mann unearthed the biggest international drug racket rooted in Punjab.
The first arrest made by Mann and his team was that of Canada-based NRI Anoop Singh Kahlon.
His arrest opened the can of worms as the name of Arjuna awardee wrester Jagdish Bhola cropped up as the mastermind, besides recovery of vehicle belonging to Arjun awardee boxer Vijender Singh (later given clean chit), and leads suggesting involvement of high profile NRIs based in Canada, Europe and the US. The case made headlines in the national and international media.
Kahlon, who basically hails from Chowk Maqsudan in Jalandhar, has been residing in Canada with his family since 1995. A truck driver there, Kahlon had created a strong drugpeddling network not only in US and Canada but also in some European countries. He used to visit India frequently. On March 3, 2013, he was caught on a specific tip-off for possessing 540 gram heroin. His interrogation led to recovery of 26-kg heroin worth ₹130 crore from his residence in Zirakpur, which he had concealed in the ceiling.
A police team comprising SP Bhupinder Singh Khatra, inspector Shaminder Singh, Bikram Singh Brar (now DSP) and Devinder Attri (now DSP) arrested Bhola from outer Delhi on November 11, 2013, nearly nine months after recovery of heroin from his Mohali residence.
During the course of investigation, pseudoephedrine — a precursor chemical to make herioin from opium — was recovered in huge quantity from Bhola and his associates.
With the name of politicians, including Bikram Singh Majithia, Amarpal Singh Bony Ajnala, Bittu Aulakh, Swaran Singh Phillaur, etc. cropping up in investigation, the case drew media attention and eventually enforcement directorate intervened and registered parallel cases of money laundering. Amarpal Bony, who was a chief parliamentary secretary in the SAD-BJP government, blamed Majithia for framing Bittu Aulakh in the case. Aulakh has
I am relieved with this conviction of Bhola and others. Credit goes to the entire team who worked hard to make the case fool-proof.
HARDIAL MANN, DIG (intelligence)
now been acquitted in the case.
After names of politicians started cropping up, such was the pressure on police that then CM Parkash Singh Badal and DGP Sumedh Singh Saini announced out-of-turn promotions to the police team on the Republic Day in 2014, but that didn’t happen.
“I am relieved with this conviction of Bhola and others. It was a daunting challenge to nab Bhola, who was then a serving DSP then and well versed with the policing. Credit goes to team of officials who consistently worked hard and made a foolproof case,” said Hardial Mann, DIG (intelligence), who as the then SSP Fatehgarh Sahib and Patiala, led the team that made the first arrest in the case. He said nearly three dozen cases were filed by the accused against the investigation team.
“Inspectors Bikram Brar, Shaminder Singh and Devinder Attri followed up the case. The credit goes to all from top to bottom,” said the DIG.
Brar, was recently promoted as DSP for killing gangster Vicky Gounder, and arresting nearly three dozen hardcore gangsters and criminals. Attri was promoted as DSP in due course, while inspector Shaminder Singh is still awaiting out-of-turn promotion.