Constable among five held, misused position to work as heroin courier

“Navjot was using his position (as a police constable) to deliver heroin. This was his main role,” said Police Commissioner Gurpreet Singh Bhullar.

He said police busted the narco-hawala racket with the arrest of five persons and recovered over Rs 46 lakh in cash. The racket was being operated by US-based drug smuggler Joban Kaler and gangster Gopi Chogawan.

Bhullar said they arrested Satnam Singh alias Sandhu, a resident of Amritsar on April 9 with 1 kilogram of heroin. Following questioning, three more persons — Rajanjot Singh, Gurpreet Singh and Anil Saini were arrested.

He said police recovered a large quantity of heroin from Saini, a resident of Bhiwani in Haryana. Further investigation led to the arrest of Navjot and Harmit. Investigation revealed that Saini, Navjot, and Harmit were found to be in contact with Kaler and Chogawan and had been running the entire network of drug and hawala funding from abroad, with active involvement from individuals based in Punjab.

Saini was allegedly running a hawala network under the cover of a dry fruit business, Bhullar said.

Investigation revealed that the accused were transferring drug money through a hawala network in exchange for heroin consignments being supplied from across the border.

During this hawala network, the accused used to exchange money by taking a photo of Rs 10 or 20 note numbers and verifying the photo through social media apps, said Bhullar.

The money was being routed through Dubai, DGP Gaurav Yadav said.

The police commissioner further said the investigation is underway to trace the total quantity of narcotics procured by the accused and to expose the complete network of suppliers, dealers and buyers, he said.

A case has been registered under the NDPS Act at Chehharta police station. An official said that they are connecting every financial transaction to trace the network’s roots.