DW BUREAU / Chandigarh

Anti-Narcotic Task Force (ANTF) of the Punjab Police with the support of the central agencies has arrested 11 people and recovered foreign currencies amounting to Rs 5.09 crore, Director General of Police Gaurav Yadav said here on Monday. With this, the police have busted a narco-terror hawala network and the mastermind of this racket was found to be in contact with Pakistani drug smuggler.

Among those arrested are five drug smugglers, three drug hawala money couriers and three hawala traders, he said. This major blow to the narco-terrorism hawala network comes amidst the ongoing anti-drugs campaign 'Yudh Nashian Virudh' launched by the Punjab government.

The arrested drug smugglers have been identified as Harjinder Singh alias Ajay (26) of Ram Talai, Amritsar; Harmanjit Singh alias Harry (27) of Guru Nanak Colony, Amritsar; Sagar (28) of Chheharta, Amritsar; Lavdeep Singh (30) alias Lala of Husanpura Kalan, Batala and Harbhaj Singh (30) alias Bheja of Kakkar, Amritsar, said an official statement. While drug hawala money couriers have been identified as Saurav alias Saurav Mahajan (24) of Joda Phatak, Amritsar; Tanush (28) of Ghah Mandi Chowk, Amritsar and Harminder Singh (28) alias Harry of Damganj, Amritsar.

The arrested hawala traders have been identified as Ashok Kumar Sharma (60), an owner of Phagwara-based Sharma Forex Money Changer, and his accomplices Rajesh Kumar (50) of Mutiarpur Mohalla in Phagwara and Amit Bansal alias Sunil (47) of Sukhchain Nagar in Phagwara, it said.

DGP Yadav said the development came following two months of meticulous investigations and sustained follow-up of backward and forward linkages in the arrest of two individuals Harjinder Singh alias Ajay and Harmanjit Singh alias Harry after recovering 263 grams heroin and Rs 5.60 lakh drug money from their possession on January 21.

Yadav said during the investigations in this case police teams from ANTF arrested three hawala money couriers -- Saurav Mahajan, Tanush and Harminder alias Harry -- on the very next day, and recovered Rs 47.50 lakhs drug money, besides impounding their SUV vehicle.

Following the trail of investigations, on January 24, police teams have successfully arrested two more drug smugglers identified as Sagar and Lavdeep Singh alias Lala, and Rs 5 lakh drug money along with a scooter and 160 grams heroin were recovered from them, he added.

The further investigations into this case has led the police teams to expose the role of an inmate lodged in Central Jail Amritsar -- Harbhaj Singh alias Bheja -- who emerged as the mastermind of this racket and was found to be in contact with Pakistani drug smuggler Shahbaz from inside the jail, he said, while adding that on January 26, the accused was brought on production warrant from Central Jail Amritsar and formally arrested in this case.

(editor@dailyworld.in)