M A I N   N E W S

Bhola’s Drug ring
No political link in sight yet; attaching of properties on
Aman Sood
Tribune News Service

Patiala, January 22
With as many as 52 arrests made till date and properties worth Rs 100 crore spread in six states already attached, the police investigation into the Rs 6,000 crore drug nexus, involving former DSP Jagdish Singh Bhola and over 36 suspected NRIs, is getting wider and bigger.

Now, the police expect to lay their hands on properties worth Rs 300 crore of the accused who have already been arrested. Property details of non-resident Indians (NRIs) are being sought and would be probed in detail.

However till now, the role of top politicians has not figured anywhere in the investigations by the Punjab Police, Narcotics Control Bureau, Intelligence Bureau, Army Intelligence, BSF Intelligence and Enforcement Directorate as was earlier alleged by Bhola.

In the past three days, the Patiala police seized chemicals worth crores from Mumbai following the arrest of Dr Sanjay Goel, who owns six pharmaceutical factories. “Police teams are hunting for Goel’s accomplices,” said a senior police officer.

Sources confirmed that properties of 31 accused persons are spread across Delhi, Mumbai, Punjab, Haryana, Goa, Rajasthan and Hyderabad. The police have prepared a secret list of NRIs involved in the drug nexus who used to be the main buyers of these narcotics.

“We will write to our counterparts in the countries whose residents have figured in our investigations. By a conservative estimate, the list is long with 36 NRI smugglers under the scanner,” the police said. The list will be handed over to Interpol once there is sufficient evidence.

Sources said that certain properties of Bhola, which include his 10-acre farm house in Doraha, a cold store, a rice sheller in Jhampur, 32-acre agricultural land worth crores in Bathinda, have already been attached.

But the police have failed to ascertain any politician’s share in those properties as had been alleged. Almost all the properties were singlehandedly bought by Bhola.

“If he had any political connection with the ruling party, there would be some exchange of money or property. At present, no such link is evident,” they said.

The police said Jagdish Bhola, Sanjay Goel and Dev Behl were the men behind the nexus in India. Behl, the drug racket kingpin in Delhi, started his criminal career in the early 1980s. From 1983 to 1988, he operated an international gold smuggling syndicate along with Anees, brother of Dawood Ibrahim, on Dawood’s directions.

“Then, there is Devinder Singh alias Dev, a Rajasthan-based Canadian national, who has high-level connections in many states and has properties allegedly earned through drug money,” said a senior police officer.

Patiala SSP Hardyal Singh Mann confirmed that the investigation revealed that houses of Dr Sanjay and Dev Behl are worth over Rs 80 crore each. “The fact that all the accused had a good rapport with certain NRIs made their work easier as they always had a demand for finished drugs,” he said. 

More about Bhola

* The questioning of Jagdish Bhola has revealed the use of African nationals as couriers for taking consignments of synthetic drug contraband from Chandigarh to New Delhi. The names of Robert, Joe and David have figured in the investigation

* The police said that while he was on the run, Bhola had stayed in Panjim for some time. He wanted to invest his drug money in the hotel business in Goa and is reported to have shown interest in purchasing a hotel for ~16 crore at the Bagha beach there

* After learning how to manufacture synthetic drugs like ICE (methamphetamine), Bhola started producing it in his own house in Phase X, Mohali.