Punjab Cops Bust Pakistan-backed Drugs Smuggling Module, Arrest Model

Punjab Police busted a cross-border smuggling module said to be backed by ISI, Pakistan’s intelligence agency, with the arrest of two of its operatives from Mohali on Wednesday. The accused have been identified as Gurpreet Singh alias Gora from Moga and Rohit Singh from Sri Ganganagar in Rajasthan. Police say Gora is a model and singer involved in hawala transactions and allege that he works on the instructions of his Pakistani handlers. The other accused, Rohit Singh, is alleged to have played an active role in collecting drug consignments and operating the network on Indian territory.

Assistant inspector general Ashwini Kapoor, who is leading the investigation in the case, said that it has come to the fore that Rohit Singh allegedly provided coordinates to Pakistani drug smugglers using which they dropped consignments through drones. AIG Kapoor said because Rohit was aware of the locations near the international borders, he was allegedly sharing coordinates that would help dodge the BSF and local police.

The senior police official said preliminary investigation suggests that those arrested were key members of a highly-organised cross border smuggling module that had direct links to Pakistan-based drug smugglers. The module was actively involved in the smuggling of contraband across the Indo-Pakistan border, posing a significant threat to national security, he said. During the arrest, police recovered 1.30 bore pistol from the possession of the accused along with live cartridges.