Army Jawan Among 7 Arrested For Cross-Border Arms Smuggling In Punjab

Amritsar Police arrested seven people, including an army personnel, in a joint operation to bust cross-border narcotics and arms trafficking networks, Punjab Director General of Police (DGP) Gaurav Yadav said on Tuesday.

During the operation, Punjab police busted four distinct modules engaged in smuggling of illicit weapons and narcotics. The police also recovered 14 modern pistols and over 20 kilograms of heroin during the operation.

The arrested suspects have been identified as Uday (19) and Patras (19), both residents of Mastgarh in Tarn Taran; Indian Army jawan Yudhvir Singh (22), a resident of Ranike village; Sajan Singh (19) and Sahilpreet (20), both from Narayangarh; Germanjot Singh (20) of Sialka village; and Sahibnoor Singh (21) of Jujhar Singh Nagar, Batala.

DGP Yadav said that according to the initial probe, the accused were in contact with an overseas handler who facilitated smuggling of illegal weapons to be supplied to local criminal syndicates. He added that further probe is going on to uncover the backward and forward linkages of the syndicate.

How The Operations Were Carried Out

Inspector General of Police (IGP), Border Range, Gurpreet Singh Bhullar outlined the first operation and said that initial breakthrough came when Gharinda police teams acted on precise intelligence and got a hold of two of the accused - Uday and Patras - as they were heading towards Khemkaran after receiving a consignment of 10 pistols which was delivered via drone from across the border. A 9 mm and nine .30-bore pistols were recovered from them. He added that preliminary questioning revealed they had previously received and distributed around 25 weapon consignments.

In the second operation,  a joint team from the Amritsar Rural CIA and Gharinda police arrested Army jawan Yudhvir Singh with a .30 bore pistol while he was home on leave. Singh had been arrested previously as well in an Arms Act case.

Bhullar said that a comprehensive report detailing Singh's involvement in cross-border smuggling is being sent to senior army officials.

The third operation was carried out by the Gharinda police team who arrested Sajan Singh and Sahilpreet and recovered 20.130 kilograms of heroin from them, said Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Amritsar Rural Kanwalpreet Singh Chahal.

In the fourth operation, a joint team headed by the In-charge Special Cell, Amritsar Rural, and the SHO of Kathunangal arrested Germanjot Singh and Sahibnoor Singh, recovering two pistols from their possession.

Four separate cases have been filed in connection with the joint operation. The first two cases were registered at Gharinda police station under Section 25 of the Arms Act on Monday, the third case was registered at Gharinda police station under Section 21 of the NDPS Act on Tuesday,  and the fourth case was registered at Kathunangal police station under Section 25 of the Arms Act on Friday.