3 arrested for supplying weapons to gangsters in Punjab

The Punjab Police on Tuesday arrested three people for allegedly supplying weapons to gangsters and drug traffickers in the state, a senior officer said.

Gurpreet Singh, Sukhdev Singh and Sarabjit Singh were booked under relevant sections of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, the IPC and the Disaster Management Act, police said.

Some of the weapons recovered from them included a double barrel rifle and different types of pistols along with live rounds, they said.

According to police, Gurpreet Singh was allegedly in direct contact with several gangsters and drug smugglers lodged in different prisons of the state.

Gurpreet Singh's questioning revealed that he was in direct contact with Shubham, a Batala-based gangster and a prime accused in the case of armed robbery of nearly Rs 7 crores from a jewellery shop in Amritsar in 2018, state Director General of Police Dinkar Gupta said.

He allegedly supplied weapons to Shubham's associates in Tarn Taran and Ferozepur areas, Gupta said in a release here.

The DGP further said Gurpreet Singh was also allegedly in direct contact with Kuldip Singh, brother of Ranjit Rana, the prime accused in the 532 kg heroin seizure drug case. Ranjit was arrested a few days ago from Sirsa in Haryana as part of a joint operation by Punjab and Haryana Police.

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Gupta further stated Kuldip, facing charges under the NDPS Act, was currently lodged in Amritsar jail.

The DGP said in depth forensic and technical analysis of the mobile devices of Gurpreet Singh and his associates was being conducted.

Reiterating the firm commitment of Punjab Police to eliminate the scourge of drug trafficking and smuggling from the state, Gupta said that since enforcement of curfew on March 22, 15.802 kg heroin had been recovered from Tarn Taran district.

The district police has been rigorously pursuing cases of freezing and forfeiture of illegally acquired properties of major drug smugglers under provisions of NDPS Act. Gupta said the properties of 12 drug smugglers worth around Rs 6.22 crore had been frozen by the district police since the imposition of curfew in the state.

Besides, 11 new cases of freezing of property, worth around Rs 17.42 crore, were recently sent to the competent authority at the finance ministry under the central government while another seven similar cases involving properties worth around Rs 5 crore would be sent this week.

Overall, illegally acquired properties of 51 major drug smugglers worth around Rs 54.46 crore have been frozen by the district police in the last nine months. 

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