Chandigarh: Punjab police on Monday claimed to have busted a narco-hawala cartel linked to Turkey-based smuggler Navpreet Singh alias Nav Bhullar with the arrest of his three operatives.
Director General of Police (DGP), Punjab, Gaurav Yadav said that those arrested have been identified as Gurdeep Singh alias Saab, 35, a taxi driver from Amritsar, Pardeep Sharma, 29, a garment shop worker from Bikaner in Rajasthan and Mani Sharma, 36, a Ludhiana-based garments businessman.
The DGP Yadav said that police teams have recovered 1.10 kg heroin, Rs 1.06 crore hawala money (Rs 84.02 lakh in cash and Rs 22 lakh frozen in bank accounts), one cash counting machine, besides, impounding their Swift Dzire car.
He said that preliminary investigation has revealed that accused Gurdeep was operating the local network of hawala and drugs smuggling on directions of his handler Nav Bhullar, who had provided him a house to use as a hideout in Amritsar and all the logistic support to run the cartel.
Accused Nav bhullar is wanted in big hauls of drug and hawala cases by different centre and state agencies, he added.
Sharing operation details, Commissioner of Police (CP) Amritsar, Gurpreet Singh Bhullar said that acting on a specific intelligence input, a police team, strategically formed different teams and apprehended Gurdeep Singh and recovered the drug consignment and drug money from his possession.
The CP said that during interrogation, accused Gurdeep mentioned about the involvement of accused persons Pardeep Sharma and Mani Sharma, and also revealed that the latter had delivered ₹5 lakh each in drug money. Following the revelations police teams have successfully tracked both the accused persons and arrested them, he said, while adding that further investigations are on.
