‘Mohan and team implicated my husband,son’

In December 2007,Mohan’s team had arrested Samrala resident Baljinder Singh and his son Sukhjinder Singh along with an alleged accomplice John F Kennedy,a foreign national,on charges of peddling heroin. According to the NCB’s claim,they had recovered eight kilograms of heroin from their possession. The three are still behind bars.

Baljinder’s wife Amarjeet Kaur while addressing the media on Wednesday alleged that Mohan and his second-in-command Balwinder Singh not only tortured her husband and son but even demanded a bribe of Rs 1 crore.

Kaur claimed Baljinder and Sukhjinder were implicated in the case. “When Baljinder failed to pay Mohan,they implicated him in the case.” At the time of their arrest,on December 10,2007,the NCB had claimed to have intercepted the Maruti Swift car of the accused near Sector 43 ISBT and recovering the contraband.

Baljinder’s counsel Kuldip Singh Chaudhary alleged his clients were picked up from Samrala and the Air India office respectively and shown to be arrested from ISBT-43. “The car belonged to one Surinder Singh with whom Baljinder had strained relations. Surinder was on good terms with the NCB officers,who in turn helped him settle scores with Baljinder,” he added.

“NCB officer Balwinder Singh had demanded Rs 1 crore at the time of arrest from my husband. When he showed his helplessness to pay such a hefty amount,they arrested him. There is also a contradiction in the time of arrest registered in the documents. In a press conference,Saji had claimed he had made the arrests at 7.30 pm whereas he registered the timing at around 10.30 pm in the chargesheet,” Kaur said.

The family alleged Baljinder and his son were tortured at the time of arrest. Their counsel also showed pictures of Sukhjinder,who,he said,was brutally beaten by the NCB officials to force him to sign a confession letter. “We have already moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court against the NCB on behalf of my clients for relief. The proceedings are on. The next date of hearing is February 24.” Kaur said: “We met the NCB Deputy Director General Ish Kumar. He gave us a patient hearing and assured us to reinvestigate the case.”