Chandigarh: 30 December, 2020: During the early morning of 30.12.2020, inputs were received by Amritsar (Rural) Police that a consignment of weapons and narcotics had been pushed across the International Border in the area of the BSF BOP Metla in Dera Baba Nanak Sector, Gurdaspur.
Based on above inputs, an FIR no. 216 dated 30.12.2020 u/s 411, 414 IPC, 25 Arms Act, 21, 23 NDPS Act was registered at PS Gharinda, Amritsar (Rural) and the BSF authorities were immediately alerted and a joint search operation was carried out.
The joint search of the area led to the recovery of 7.31 kg heroin and three China made .30 bore Norinco Pistols from near Border Pillar no. 38/3 of the BOP Metla.
As per initial inputs, which are to be corroborated during investigations, the consignment had been pushed into the Indian territory by a notorious Pakistan based smuggler Jagdish Singh @ Bhura r/o Jagraon, who is presently settled in Belgium. He has been nominated in the FIR. He is an active terrorist and Proclaimed Offender in 3 terrorism related cases.
Further intelligence inputs have established the key role of a major drug smuggler namely Ranjit Singh r/o village Modhe, Amritsar, who is currently lodged in Ludhiana Jail. Based on information by Amritsar (Rural) Police, the authorities of Ludhiana Jail conducted the search of the belongings of Ranjit Singh and one Oppo smartphone has been recovered from his possession. He has also been nominated in the case and will be brought on production warrant for further questioning and further investigations into his extensive network of contacts.
Ranjit Singh was recruited as constable in the 80th Batallion of PAP, Jalandhar in 1989 and rose up to the rank of ASI in 2011. But in 2011, he was booked by DRI for his involvement in an NDPS Act case where 23 kg heroin was recovered. Thereafter, he was dismissed from service in 2012. Ranjit Singh has five criminal cases registered against him for smuggling of drugs and arms, where commercial quantities of heroin and sophisticated firearms were recovered.
While in Jail, Ranjit Singh developed close contacts with Pak based smugglers for smuggling of drugs into India.
In December 2016, Ranjit Singh also developed close links with smugglers Simranjit Singh and Surjit Masih. Both Simranjit Singh and Surjit Masih are among the prime accused in the recently arrested drone module by Amritsar (Rural) Police in which a Quadcopter Drone with SkyDroid T10 Telemetry System and four other drones along with related hardware were recovered.
Further investigations are being conducted to examine Ranjit Singh’s involvement in this recently busted drone module. Thorough investigations, are being done to establish the network of foreign and Indian contacts which were in close touch with Ranjit Singh to unravel the forward and backward linkages of the recovered drug consignment.
