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NARCOTICS
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So far so good: Politics raises stakes for the probe team
Smugglers often use plastic pipes (above) to push through packets of heroin across the barbed wire along the border with Pakistan. The particularly hot spots for smuggling are indicated in the map below. PK Jaiswar The arrest of Maninder Singh Bittu Aulakh and Jagjit Singh Chahal from Amritsar in the Bhola drug racket has rekindled talk of the ever-suspected politician-drug mafia nexus.
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Breaking the Punjab cartel The recent successes police has had against smugglers in Punjab, especially with the arrest of ex-DSP Bhola, may only be an indicator to the scale of the drug trade in the state. Any lasting curb on the business would depend on how the investigations negotiate the politics they have triggered. Aman Sood
For
long it has been recognised that a high percentage of the youth in Punjab has been ruined by addiction to drugs, and that the state is a major transit point in the international drug trade. Recent busting of the Bhola-Kahlon gang has, however, exposed altogether new aspects of the mess — production of narcotics in the state and involvement of drug money in politics. The picture becomes progressively clearer as the various dots from the investigation are joined. The entire canvas is, of course, yet to be revealed. The Punjab Police has put the worth of the international racket busted thus far at $300 million in the “international market”. The operators interacted closely with politicians, sportsmen, police officials, industrialists, NRIs, and even some Punjabi singers. It is an industry straddling virtually the entire state.
Kahlon first catch It was in March 2013 that the first chapter of the sordid tale opened with the Fatehgarh Sahib police arresting Anoop Singh Kahlon, an NRI, and seized 26-kg drugs valued at Rs 130 crore. His questioning revealed the kingpin was Jagdish Singh Bhola, a dismissed DSP of the Punjab Police, who procured drugs from across the border and supplied them to other parts of the country. According to HS Mann, Patiala SSP, Bhola used his connections to identify factories that had the expertise and resources to produce Ice — the popular name of methamphetamine, a powerful psycho-stimulant that is much in demand in high-profile party circles. The police, however, could not lay their hands on Bhola immediately. But Kahlon’s grilling led the police to arrest Ram Singh — an Olympic medallist himself and roommate of famed boxer Vijender Singh at the National Institute of Sports, Patiala — who was also employed with the Punjab Police under sports quota. Investigators had earlier claimed Ram Singh had “admitted” he was in touch with Kahlon since 2007 and had introduced Vijender to him a year ago. The NRI and an accomplice, Rocky, were arrested after 26 kg heroin and certain chemicals were seized from Kahlon’s house in Zirakpur. Later Vijender — also a DSP with the Haryana Police — was also summoned, but he failed to join the investigations. After being incommunicado for a fortnight, he answered queries of the Punjab Police, following which he was let off, with the police saying he was only a consumer, and not a peddler.
The kingpin
Bhola, on the run since March 3, 2013, when his Mohali residence was raided, evaded arrest all this while, i.e., till November 11, when a team led by Banur SHO Bikramjit Brar arrested him along with four associates at Ghanaur, 12 km short of Murthal on the GT Road, near New Delhi. Synthetic drugs “worth Rs 18 crore” were seized from them, according to the police. “The operation was planned with the counter-intelligence unit of the police,” said Brar, who is now the investigating officer in the case. The Patiala SSP then told the media Bhola was the mastermind of the racket, which was jointly exposed by police officials from Jalandhar Rural, Fatehgarh Sahib and Patiala districts. The four arrested with Bhola were identified as Sarabjit Singh Saba from Amritsar district; Harpreet Singh from Jhabal in Tarn Taran district; Baljinder Singh, also from Tarn Taran; and Ravinder Singh from Sonepat in Haryana. The drugs seized included 10 kg pseudoephedrine (a precursor chemical) worth Rs 10 crore; 1.5 kg Ice (methamphetamine) worth Rs 7.5 crore; and 600 gm ephedrine (a precursor chemical) worth Rs 60 lakh. The worth is as per the price assessed by the police “in the international market”. Sports connect Even as Olympic medallist Vijender denied any links with the arrested accused, sportsmen per se came under the spotlight. In the recent past several sportsmen of national level have been arrested for their involvement in crime. In the Vijender case, the investigators have yet to establish how his car reached Zirakpur when he claims he had parked it at NIS, Patiala. Bhola himself was a former decorated wrestler, even honoured with the Arjuna Award, Bharat Kesri and Rustam-i-Hind titles. He was recruited by the state police as a sportsman, and rose to become a DSP. After his nefarious activities came to light, Bhola was dismissed in 2004. He had even worked in a Punjabi film. Kahlon too was a former national-level sportsman.
The producers The police has thus far uncovered two important supply chains of precursor chemicals (ephedrine and pseudoephedrine) used in manufacture of Ice — Jagjit Singh Chahal of Amritsar district and Manjinder Singh Bittu Aulakh, a resident of Preet Lari village in Amritsar, who are now under arrest. Chahal was operating three pharmaceutical factories manufacturing ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, which were allegedly diverted illegally for the production of Ice. Chemicals worth Rs 925 crore were seized from two factories — MBP Pharmaceuticals and Montek Bio-Pharma — in Baddi, Himachal. Aulakh — who owns Sanjog hotel in Amritsar, was close to Khadoor Sahib SAD MP Rattan Singh Ajnala and his MLA son Amarpal Singh Bony. The police suspect Aulakh used cars deployed in the politicians’ security on two occasions to smuggle contraband. His links with other politicians are being probed. Several cars owned by Aulakh and bearing the number ‘0001’ have been seized, besides multiple mobile numbers. Aulakh paid lakhs for the special numbers.
NRI net There has been an intricate network in place to supply synthetic drugs to markets in Europe, Canada and the UK. More than 50 NRIs role is suspected in this nexus. “Many of them been identified and would be arrested soon,” SSP Mann said. Most drugs are believed to have been transported out of India by air cargo, though some went through human couriers too. Contraband would be hidden in cavities cut out in legitimate goods. In some instances, sports clubs based in Canada and Europe were also used for distribution of the contraband through NRIs who visited India on the pretext of organising sports tournaments. There were also Chinese, Vietnamese and people of other nationalities involved in the preparation of the synthetic drugs, specially brought to India to ensure ‘quality control’ in manufacture. The investigations are still going on, and there is a lot that may yet be revealed. As some police officials say, this is just the tip of the iceberg. But as political pressure mounts following the arrest of associates of politicians, the police is beginning to become reticent in giving out details of the investigation. Hope the probe itself does not go cold.
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From being a transit point for drugs coming from Afghanistan, Punjab has emerged as a major consumption hub too, with the flow of drugs being called the ‘sixth river’ of the state. Varinder Singh takes a look at the spread in Punjab. Counting addicts
Numbers: Different surveys have variously put the number of youth addicted to synthetic or other costly drugs at 50-75 per cent. Over 60 per cent families have at least one member aged between 15 and 35 hooked to drugs. Source: It started about 10 years ago with heroin making inroads to Punjab from Pakistan. It gradually phased out poor man’s drugs like poppy husk, cannabis and opium. Though opium supply from Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh continues. Preference: Opium has more takers Malwa, and to some extent in the Majha region. Heroin and high-end synthetic drugs are popular in the NRI cash-rich Doaba, pockets of Ludhiana and Samrala, areas close to the border, Patiala and the Tricity of Chandigarh-Mohali-Panchkula.
Cash cow
The scale of the drug trade in Punjab can be guessed from the fact that Ice and other narcotics worth Rs 600 crore and Rs 200 crore were seized from the Jagdish Bhola gang and the Raja Kandola gang, respectively. The drug trade spread out to Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Russia, Europe and North America, could have an annual turnover of thousands of crores of rupees in Punjab alone.
Attaching properties
Raja Kandola was the first Punjab-based drug lord whose properties worth over Rs 25 crore in Banga, Samrala, Ropar and Gurgaon have been attached by the Enforcement Directorate under the NDPS Act. Now his ‘benami’ properties are being identified. Properties procured with drug money by Bhola and his associates and Anup Singh Kahlon will also be attached, says Dr Girish Bali, Joint Director of Enforcement Directorate.
Increasing border seizures
Heroin seized by the BSF on the Pakistan border in Punjab:
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So far so good: Politics raises stakes for the probe team
The
arrest of Maninder Singh Bittu Aulakh and Jagjit Singh Chahal from Amritsar in the Bhola drug racket has rekindled talk of the ever-suspected politician-drug mafia nexus. The same year Chief Parliamentary Secretary and Tarn Taran MLA Harmeet Singh Sandhu too faced allegations of seizure of ‘smack’ from his official vehicle. In May 2002, an SGPC member, Sadhu Singh Ragi, was arrested for his alleged involvement in the smuggling of narcotics. The police had confiscated poppy husk from his car in Bathinda. Recently, the Amritsar police arrested Balwinder Singh, with the aliases of ‘Chairman’ and ‘Sarpanch’ and a resident of Havelian village on the Pakistan border, along with a relative with 1kg of heroin. Later synthetic drugs were seized from his residence, suspected to have been procured from a Delhi-based smuggler. He was long suspected to be dealing in drugs, but had not been arrested as he reportedly had political links.
Bhola and politics
In the Bhola ring, too, the political connections of Aulakh and Chahal have been revealed. Aulakh was once general secretary of the Youth Akali Dal and was close to Khadoor Sahib MP Dr Rattan Singh Ajnala and his MLA son Amarpal Singh Bony. Aulakh was the election agent of the father-son duo and was even provided with a red-beacon car and security. Besides, it is suspected Chahal also financed some of the political activity and certain SAD leaders visited his residence at Romana Chak village. Aulakh, the one with greater political links than Chahal, nurtured political ambitions too. He was the sarpanch of his village Vairoke from 2007 to 2012 and had even lobbied hard for the SAD ticket for Rajasansi in the 2012 Assembly polls. Sources in the Police Department, who do not wish to be identified, say the majority of drug smugglers in the border villages are affiliated to one or the other political party, which they fund during elections. This keeps them immune from the law enforcement agencies. The high profit margins, of course, are the major attraction for residents of the border area to be involved in drug smuggling. Lending credence to the political connection theory are the recent allegations of former DGP (Jails) Shashi Kant that leaders of major political parties like the SAD and Congress are involved in the drug trade. In a petition in the high court, he has alleged that politicians run a racket in connivance with the police or through henchmen. The profits fund elections. He has claimed submitting a list of SAD, BJP and Congress leaders with links to the drug mafia to the state government six years back, but said no action was taken.
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Smugglers keep innovating ways to smuggle in the contraband from Pakistan. Among the devices used are passing of heroin packets through PVC pipes pushed across the barbed wire on the border, packets concealed in cavities inside farm implements and equipment. Some farmers are also involved in this. Some smugglers are trying to take on lease agricultural land on the Pakistani side close to the border to facilitate smuggling. Trains and trucks coming from Pakistan too have been used. The beds of Ravi and Sutlej rivers also helps
them.
The history of drug traffickers’ political connections goes far back. In 2008, a Youth Akali Dal leader, Purshotam Sondhi, was nabbed by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) with 22 kg of heroin while he was allegedly trying to smuggle it out to Canada. He was arrested from the Amritsar airport road following a trap laid on specific information. 
