The police raids the house of Kharar lab employee Dr Rajwinder Singh in Patiala on Tuesday. A Tribune photograph

Amritsar, October 29
The Punjab Police today conducted raids at several places after uncovering a nexus between drug smugglers, government officials and policemen allegedly involved in tampering with chemical reports of seized contraband.

The police has arrested a sub-inspector, a government laboratory employee and two others in the case. Raids were conducted at Patiala and Kharar to arrest the other accused allegedly involved in the racket.

The Tarn Taran and Gurdaspur police got the breakthrough while tracking the route of drugs after interrogating those involved in the nexus. The police claims to have established the involvement of a doctor and his subordinates deputed at the Chemical Examiner Laboratory, Kharar. Addressing mediapersons here today, Inspector-General (Border Range) Ishwar Chandra said the laboratory employees allegedly used to temper with the chemical reports of seized drugs and label these as “failed samples” or having “low percentage” of drug in their report for hefty sums.

Departmental action would be initiated against the erring employees once a report was received from the police. — Vini Mahajan, Principal Secretary, Health

These tempered reports used to help drug traffickers get easy acquittal in courts. The accused would go scot free if the sample showed 10-15 per cent purity.

The accused have been identified as assistant chemical examiner Dr Rajwinder Pal Singh, superintendent RK Mishra, senior lab technician Lekh Raj and class IV employee Darshan Singh. Barring Darshan Singh, all other accused are at large.

The Tarn Taran police has further arrested Manjit Singh, a resident of Tarn Taran, and Harbhal Singh, a resident of Bhikhiwind. The two were in touch with the laboratory officials.

A case under Sections 29, 61 and 85 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, and Sections 7 and 13 of the Prevention of Corruption Act has been registered at the City police station. Sub-Inspector Lalit Kumar, earlier posted as Pathankot’s Sadar police station SHO, was arrested near Chandigarh for his link to the nexus, said Gurdaspur Senior Superintendent of Police Sukhwant Singh Gill.

The IG said Lalit Kumar was hands in glove with drug smugglers and lab officials. He was instrumental in obtaining tempered reports and brokering a deal between the smugglers and the lab staff.