BSF constable, 4 others held with 1.3kg heroin in Punjab

The Punjab Police special task force (STF) on Wednesday arrested five men, including a Border Security Force (BSF) constable, with 1.32kg of heroin and ₹1.16 lakh.

Police said Sunil Kumar, 28, from Madhya Pradesh, kept the contraband in his residence at BSF’s Khasa headquarters. Others arrested have been identified as Gaurav Sharma of the Batala road area, Ashvani Kumar, alias Jalebi, of the Katra Ahluwalia locality, Pawan Kumar of Indira Colony and Rajinder Singh, aka Raju, of the Ram Tirth road area in Amritsar.

Amritsar assistant inspector general (AIG) of police (STF) Rashpal Singh said the arrests happened following a tip-off that some drug peddlers were looking for customers in Amritsar.

“A team led by deputy superintendent of police, STF, Sohan Singh set up a checkpoint at the T-point near the military station on Tuesday and stopped a Hyundai Creta (PB-02-DP-5535). When searched, over 300gm of heroin and ₹1.16 lakh were recovered from four persons travelling in the vehicle,” said the AIG.

During interrogation, the accused said they purchased the contraband from a migrant man and paid him Rs18,000 as an initial amount, while ₹2.82 lakh was pending.

They also told the police that he would come on Wednesday near the Gopal Mandi area for taking the pending amount, the AIG said.

“We laid a trap on Wednesday and arrested the migrant man in the Gopal Mandi area red-handed. During interrogation, the accused told us that he is posted as a constable in the BSF,” said the AIG.

Sunil was posted in the Daoke border outpost in Amritsar in December last year during which he found four packets of heroin near the International Border and hid them at his residence in Khasa headquarters, he said.

Sunil joined the BSF in 2012 under sports category. He has been deployed in Amritsar district since 2016.

Sunil was on leave last week and was staying in an Amritsar hotel where he managed to contact the four accused. On June 22, Sunil handed over 305gm of heroin to them, said the official.

The AIG said when his residence was raided with the help of BSF officials, 1.15gm of heroin was recovered in three packets.

The AIG said a case under Sections 25, 29, 61 and 85 of the NDPS Act has been registered against the accused at STF’s Mohali police station.

“More recoveries are expected as preliminary investigation reveal that Sunil was in contact with some drug paddlers through WhatsAap,” he said.

One kg heroin seized from goods train in Attari

Customs officials seized 1.1 kg of heroin from a goods train which arrived from Pakistan on Tuesday at the Attari railway station.

Commissioner customs (preventive) Dipak Kumar Gupta said: “The team recovered the contraband in a cylindrical wire hidden in the pressure pipe of an empty wagon.”

The goods train to Pakistan runs twice in a week. The empty train arrived back at the Attari station on Tuesday after being unloaded in Pakistan.

Gupta said the recovered unclaimed substance and the packing material were seized under the provisions of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act 1985 and Customs Act 1962.

India exports various items to the neighbouring country through the goods train that runs twice in a week via Attari railway station.

The empty train arrived at the station on Tuesday after being unloaded in Pakistan.