The gendarme was assigned to a border outpost in the district of Taran Tarn. (Representative)
Chandigarh:
A BSF agent and two others have been arrested in a cross-border drug and weapons smuggling racket, Punjab police said on Sunday.
A 30 caliber pistol, made in China, along with five live cartridges and Rs 24.50 lakh were recovered from the three defendants, identified as border security force officer Rajendra Prashad and two residents, Surmail Singh and Gurjant Singh, said the police chief. Dinkar Gupta.
The BSF gendarme, a resident of Ganga Nagar district in Rajasthan, was assigned to a border outpost in Chhina village in Taran Tarn district.
Mr Prashad is the second BSF agent recently arrested by Punjab police in a cross-border smuggling racket. Police arrested another BSF agent, Sumit Kumar, stationed in Sambha, Jammu and Kashmir, in another cross-border smuggling case.
Giving details of the operation, Gupta said that acting on a whistleblower, a police team from Jalandhar Rural apprehended two smugglers on July 26, who were driving from Delhi.
The cops had recovered 25 g of heroin from them. Upon questioning, the duo identified themselves as Surmail Singh and Gurjant Singh.
Further questioning of Surmail led to the recovery of the pistol with five live ammunition.
During questioning, the duo also revealed that they were working with a cross-border smuggler, Satnam Singh alias Satta, a resident of the Taran Tarn district.
Satta was closely linked to the Pak-based smugglers smuggling heroin and weapons from Pakistan.
They also revealed that police officer Rajendra Prashad was also involved in the contraband racketeering.
The DGP said he had contacted his BSF and Rajasthan counterparts for the arrest of the BSF gendarme.
He was apprehended by Punjab police on July 28 at his residence in Rawala Mandi, where he was using his leave, the DGP said in a statement in Chandigarh.
During questioning, the BSF gendarme revealed that he had been involved in drug trafficking racketeering by Satnam Singh, who had promised him money for ignoring the arms smuggling and shipment narcotics at his border post.
He then authorized the gang to bring in a shipment of 17kg of heroin and two foreign-made pistols in May.
This time again, Satnam Singh, in collusion with Rajendra Prashad, Surmail Singh and Gurjant Singh, was to bring another batch of heroin and weapons from his handlers based in Pakistan.
Satnam reportedly gave Rs 5 lakh and a cell phone to Prashad in advance to receive this composite mailing.
The DGP said that out of Rs 24.5 lakh, Rs 15 lakh was recovered from Satnam Singh’s residence, Rs 5 lakh from Constable BSF and Rs 4.5 lakh from Gurjant Singh.
Police were working to secure the extradition of the hub, Satnam Singh, of Muscat, Oman, where he fled after being convicted in two smuggling cases.
He used a fake passport and Aadhar card issued in Gurmeet Singh’s name to escape, DGP Gupta said.
The accused had already registered five cases of smuggling against him.
Satnam Singh’s ill-gotten property, which he had purchased with drug money on behalf of his relative Maninder Kaur at Sandhu Colony Amritsar, has been frozen, he added.
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
