Possession of commercial quantity of heroin nailed accused

MOHALI : Possession of commercial quantity of heroin without any licence or permit led to the conviction of former international wrestler and sacked DSP Jagdish Singh Bhola in a multicrore drug racket, busted by Punjab Police in 2013.

Police had recovered 10kg heroin, ₹8 lakh and other packing and sealing material from Bhola’s house in Phase 10, Mohali.

Bhola’s acquittal in case where he was caught with 25-kg ICE in Maharashtra failed to be of any consequence to this case, as the court held, that ‘he had been acquitted on technical grounds’.

His argument of being falsely implicated in this case on the grounds that proceedings were pending against two police officials in Bathinda for framing him in another NDPS case registered in 2002 did not find merit. He had been acquitted in the NDPS case in 2007.

“It is not possible to accept the contention of the accused that he has been falsely implicated as it is highly improbable that such a huge quantity can be arranged by police officials in order to falsely implicate the accused, especially in view of the fact that police had no previous enmity with the accused,” the court ruled.

It added, “None of those police officials are associated in any manner directly or indirectly in this case. It is otherwise impossible to plant such a huge quantity on the accused.”

Dismissing the arguments of false implication of other accused as well, the court observed, “They have admitted that the allegations which they are now levelling against the police are being made for the first time in court. Prior to that they had never moved any application to the police or any other authority regarding false implication of the accused.”

Another accused, Satinder Dhama, who was arrested with 78kg of Methamphetamine from the Innova vehicle parked in his house, had claimed that he was implicated due to matrimonial discord with his wife, who is niece of Punjab police officer. The court, however, ruled, “The divorce was granted in 2008 and thus there was no occasion for anybody to implicate the accused in the year 2013. Moreover, the said SSP is neither directly nor indirectly connected in any manner with this case.”