In June, in a bid to tighten the noose around drug traffickers, the Punjab government announced that assets of anyone arrested in drug cases would be seized within a week. However, in the first 10 months of 2024, only 362 out of 10,524 drug smugglers arrested had their properties frozen. One reason is that under Section 68 of the NDPS Act, properties can only be confiscated if proven to have been acquired through drug money.
Director General of Police Gaurav Yadav said Punjab Police froze assets worth Rs 208 crore across 362 cases during this period, including Rs 37 crore from a single accused in Amritsar. However, none of the wealthy accused fall in the police list of 153 “big fish,” a term used for traffickers caught with over two kilos of heroin.
An investigation by The Indian Express into the top five high-value properties attached in Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Ferozepur, and Gurdaspur— districts along the international drug corridor with Pakistan— found a disconnect between the so called big fish and the worth of their properties. Frequently, those with small drug recoveries had properties valued higher than those of the alleged big fish. Additionally, there were allegations that many attached properties were ancestral, not acquired with drug money.
The data provided by the Punjab Police includes only consolidated seizure figures, without individual names of major offenders. From January 1 to October 30, the numbers for “big fish” are as follows: Amritsar reported 37 cases, Tarn Taran 11, Ferozepur 5, while Gurdaspur reported none.
In the first eight months of 2024, Amritsar Rural police attached properties worth Rs 43.55 crore from 17 accused, with property worth Rs 37.33 crore belonging to Ajaypal Singh of Mode village. This leaves the average value of attached properties for the remaining 16 accused at Rs 36 lakh each. However, the properties of three high-profile accused — Dilbagh Singh, Bhinder Singh, and Manipal Singh, allegedly caught with 12 kilos of heroin — were valued at half this average.
The Indian Express found that Dilbagh Singh of Rajatal village. accused of smuggling 12 kilos of heroin, shares ownership of a 125-square-meter government allotted house in a Dalit colony with his brothers. Police valued the property at Rs 13.5 lakh, one of the lowest among attached properties. Despite allegations of connections with Pakistani smugglers, police could not identify other attachable properties belonging to Dilbagh.
The Amritsar Rural police also attached properties of Dilbagh’s co-accused — Bhinder Singh and Manipal Singh. We found that Bhinder’s house in Daoke, valued at Rs 20.82 lakh, is located on panchayat land while Manipal’s house in Chhina Shabajpur, which was attached by police, was ancestral property valued at Rs 21.65 lakh.
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Interestingly, the highest-valued property in Amritsar attached this year belonged to Ajaypal Singh, arrested in July after police claimed to have recovered 500 grams of heroin and a pistol from him. A second NDPS case was registered against him and 19-year-old Jatin Singh, a Dalit farm labourer from the same village. Their properties were attached within six weeks, showcasing swift implementation of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann’s directives. While Ajaypal is one of the wealthiest accused, Jatin is among the poorest.
Ajaypal’s father, Sukhdev Singh, accused police of overvaluing their property — a banquet hall and rented sweet shop on Grand Trunk Road — at Rs 37 crore. He said the property was bought in 1993 and transferred to his sons in 2021, making Ajaypal only a partial owner. Sukhdev disputed the valuation of around Rs 6 lakh per sqm, arguing that the maximum official rate in the area is under Rs 30,000 per sqm.
In contrast, the family’s 500-sqm house in Mode, located 25 km away, was valued by police at just Rs 33 lakh. Sukhdev questioned whether a family with Rs 37 crore in assets would live in a Rs 33 lakh village home. He alleged that Ajaypal was targeted because of his plans to contest panchayat elections and claimed to have records proving the property’s 30-year-old history.
Jatin’s family, on the other hand, lacks awareness about the attachment process. They live in a modest 125-sqm government granted house, valued at Rs 5.85 lakh — one of the lowest-valued properties attached under NDPS cases. Jatin’s father, Jaimal Singh, disputed the attachment and questioned whether they would live in such poverty if Jatin had profited from smuggling.
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In Gurdaspur, the top eight accused whose cases were sent to Delhi for property attachment have an average property value of Rs 33.15 lakh. The highest-valued property in this group, worth Rs 40 lakh, belongs to Karnail Singh. His house, valued at Rs 38 lakh, is built on forest department land. Karnail Singh, accused in a 100-kg poppy husk recovery case, questioned the valuation. “We don’t own the land our house is built on. I don’t know how they arrived at Rs 38 lakh,” said Karnail Singh, who is out on bail.
Between January 2023 and October 2024, Ferozepur police attached properties worth Rs 17.63 crore in 42 cases. Among these, Darbara Singh, who was allegedly caught with 60 gms of heroin, topped the list with an attached property valued at Rs 1.68 crore. His family claimed he is a drug addict.
The second-highest attached property in Ferozepur, valued at Rs 1.22 crore, belongs to Balwinder Singh Gola, son of a former sarpanch. Gola, 28, admitted to falling into addiction and bad company. Recently, he completed half of his 10-year sentence for heroin possession (260 gm). Gola and his brother jointly own the attached property but claimed it was overvalued by police. “They sent an officer with no experience for evaluation. We submitted an estimate from a registered architect, valuing it around Rs 40 lakh,” Gola said.
Lakhwinder Singh’s property of Rs 37 lakh is valued the highest among the top seven accused from Tarn Taran district. His name was not mentioned in the initial FIR but he was nominated later and he is the first one to get bail in the case involving the seizure of 1.5 kilo of heroin. Three main accused are still in jail from whole 1.5 kg heroin was recovered. None of his co-accused figure among the top seven (by the value of properties attached) in Tarn Taran during the first eight months of 2024. Apart from Lakhwinder, Baldev Singh, Ashish Masih, Gurbhinder Jit Singh, and Akashdeep are among the top seven accused in the district and they all are poorer than Lakhwinder.
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Ashish Masih, the son of a pastor, was labelled a “big fish” after police allegedly seized two kilos of heroin from him. His 100-sqm house in Khemkaran, valued at Rs 21 lakh, is owned by his wife. His father, Vijay Masih, said, “I built this house 15 years ago with my daughter’s remittance. Ashish has a plastic tube in his throat after a bullet injury — how can he be involved in smuggling?”
The Indian Express also found that some alleged smugglers live in dire conditions. In Malakpur, Amritsar, fisherman Mohinder Singh said his son Meva Singh were arrested after finding a heroin packet in the river and returning it to its intended smugglers. The attached property, valued at Rs 58 lakh, includes a dilapidated house and 12 kanals of land. The family struggles to make ends meet.
Explaining the procedure for attaching a property, Harinder Singh, SP (Investigation), Amritsar Rural, said, “First, the property is identified. The revenue record of the said property is procured. Then we check the criminal history of the accused to determine if the property was acquired using drug money.
We also examine whether any renovations were made to ancestral property with drug money. The SHO (station house officer) then prepares the case and sends it to the competent authority in Delhi. The authority summons the concerned party, and the police paste these summons on the accused’s property, a process known as freezing the property. Once the property is frozen, the accused cannot sell it. After hearing the accused, if the competent authority deems the case valid, it issues orders to seize the property. The property is then auctioned, and the proceeds are deposited into the exchequer’s account.” He added that no property has been auctioned yet in the Amritsar Rural police jurisdiction, as it is a time-consuming process for the authority to decide on cases.
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While dismissing allegations that many of the properties attached were ancestral, Ranjit Singh, IG, Ferozepur Range, said, “We only attach properties that are bought or developed using drug money. Many accused do not have such properties. We do not attach ancestral properties, nor do we target properties that were not acquired through drug money”.
