Punjab Police seizes six kg heroin day after 105-kg drug haul one held

     Chandigarh, Oct 28 (PTI) Punjab Police on Monday said it has arrested a man with six kg heroin following its probe into the 105-kg drug haul in the state.
     The arrested accused has been identified as Lovepreet Singh, a resident of Chakoki village in Kapurthala, Director General of Police (DGP) Gaurav Yadav said here.
     Apart from recovering heroin consignment from his possession, police also impounded the accused's car in which he was travelling.
     The development came a day after Counter Intelligence (CI) Amritsar of the Punjab Police busted a cross-border smuggling racket after arresting two associates -- “Navjot Singh and Lovepreet Kumar -- of drug smuggler Navpreet Singh alias Nav Bhullar and recovered 105 kg heroin, 31.93 kg caffeine anhydrous, 17 kg dextromethorphan (DMR) and six weapons from their possession.
     DGP Yadav said while establishing forward-backward linkages in this case, police figured out that another associate Lovepreet Singh has received a huge consignment of heroin from Rajasthan, which he planned to supply to his associates based in Punjab.
     Police teams led by deputy superintendent of police Counter Intelligence Amritsar, Balbir Singh, put up a special checkpoint in Umranangal Morh village along the Jalandhar-Amritsar GT Road and apprehended Lovepreet Singh after recovering six kg heroin from his car.
     The DGP said preliminary investigation revealed that Lovepreet Singh picked up the heroin consignment from district Hanumangarh in Rajasthan and was going to deliver it to drug peddler Navjot Singh, who was arrested in the 105 kg heroin seizure case.
     The arrested accused will be further questioned to gather more information about the supply chain and his connections with the drug trafficking network.
     Further investigations are on to establish backward and forward linkages in this case, said the DGP.
     Meanwhile, Punjab cabinet minister and AAP leader Tarunpreet Singh Sond alleged that Navjot Singh, who was arrested in the 105 kg heroin seizure case, was the Congress party's circle chief from Baba Bakala in Amritsar.
     "Police recovered heroin from Congress circle president, Navjot Singh, who hails from Baba Bakala," alleged Sond here.
     "I commend the Punjab Police for their exceptional efforts in intercepting this significant drug shipment," said Sond.
     "This operation demonstrates our (AAP government's) commitment to combating drug-related crimes," he said.
     However, no immediate reaction to AAP's accusation was available from the Congress.
     A cross-border smuggling racket was unearthed on Sunday with the arrest of two associates of a Turkey-based drugs smuggler Navpreet Singh and seizure of 105 kg of heroin. Six weapons were also seized during the operation.
     Police had arrested Navjot Singh, a resident of Guru Tegh Bahadur Colony in Baba Bakala, Amritsar, and Lovepreet Kumar, a resident of Kala Sanghian in Kapurthala in the case.
     Both Navjot and Kumar were the two associates of Turkey-based drug smuggler Navpreet Singh alias Nav Bhullar.
     "Investigations revealed that the accused persons were using these scheduled drugs as multiplying agents to increase the heroin quantity by four times," DGP Yadav had said on Sunday.
     According to police investigations, water-route was used to transport drugs from Pakistan.
     Bhullar was operating a Pakistan-backed cross-border smuggling racket using his associates camped at a rented accommodation at Colony Lady Road in Baba Bakala, police said.
     The Border Security Force (BSF) on Sunday recovered 568 grams of heroin near the International Border in Tarn Taran district. In a separate incident, the BSF also recovered a drone from a field near Ballaharwal village in Amritsar.
     On October 10, the BSF had recovered over 13 kg of heroin near the International Border in Tarn Taran district.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)