2 Amritsar residents held with 103-gm heroin

The Nurpur district police have busted an inter-state drug smuggling racket by arresting two Amritsar residents, who were trying to enter Himachal Pradesh with a consignment of narcotic drugs. Acting on tip-off, the police set up a special naka on Sunday night at the inter-state excise border in Bhadroya under the Damtal police station jurisdiction. The police signalled a car to stop at the check-point. During search, they seized 103.07-gm heroin (chitta) from the possession of the car occupants, identified as Yaadvinder Singh of Bahini village and Malkiat Singh of Chheharta in Amritsar. A case under Sections 21, 25 and 29 of the NDPS Act was registered at the Damtal police station. Sharing details, Nurpur SP Ashok Ratan told ‘The Tribune’ that the police had launched a special anti-drug drive in the border district and targeted the inter-state drug smuggling network. He said so far, the district police had registered 35 NDPS Act cases in the past five months and seized 762.89-gm heroin, 10.579 kg charas (hashish) and over Rs 1.20 crore of drug earned money from drug peddlers. “Apart from this, property worth over Rs 1.46 crore has been seized after a financial investigation of the drug peddling accused during this period. Sixty drug peddlers, including 10 women, have been arrested by the district in its anti-drug campaign in this year,” he said. The SP said the district police had submitted detention order proposals against 14 accused under the Prevention of Illicit Traffic (PIT) NDPS Act to the Detention Authority cum Secretary Home, HP Government, and detention orders had been passed against seven accused and three proposals were under consideration before the competent authority. The SP appealed to the general public to assist the police in curbing the drug peddling menace in the district

Himachal Tribune