Constable caught peddling drugs in hospital; second such case in week

Arrest of two cops within a week in drug peddling cases has left the Jammu and Kashmir Police red-faced.

The Jammu police on Wednesday arrested a constable who was selling drugs inside the premises of Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) in Jammu. The accused police constable has been identified as Mohammad Mukhtiyar, who is a resident of Beli Charana in Jammu. A police official informed the arrest was made after reliable information provided by intelligence.

The team from police post at GMCH along with executive magistrate searched the constable and recovered 15 gram heroin and Rs 9,000 in cash from him. Mukhtiyar is posted in Armed Police 12th Battalion at Srinagar’s Zewan and has been placed under suspension with immediate effect.

Police in an official statement said accused Mohammad Mukhtiyar is part of a drug syndicate which is active in Jammu and are selling drugs to innocent youth of the area for gaining undue profits from sale of narcotics and are “responsible for deaths due to overdose of drugs happening in the area”.

Interestingly, a police constable along with his two wives was arrested on November 7 for drug peddling. The constable was identified as Perwaiz Iqbal, a resident of Janipur in Jammu. 33 grams of heroin was recovered from his possession. Perwaiz was posted in Crime Branch Jammu.

Superintendent of Police Brijesh Sharma is supervising the investigation to dig out the backward and forward linkages of these drug peddlers. The police are also holding financial investigation of the accused to know about the property acquired by them and to further attach their illegitimate properties which is proceed of narcotics.

The J&K administration had in August dismissed five police officials for working as over ground workers of terror organisations and being part of narco-terror syndicate.

As per official information released at the time of dismissal, police constable Saif Din was a notorious drug peddler and a habitual offender and a mastermind for generation and distribution of narco-terror funding.

Head constable Farooq Ahmad along with two other constables — Khalid Hussian Shah and Rahmat Shah received huge consignment of narcotics from drug smugglers in Pakistan occupied J&K. He had contacts with Pakistan-based terrorists, who were involved in smuggling of narcotics, weapons and money across the LoC.

Another constable, Irshad Ahmad Chalkoo, had developed close relationship with the terrorist associates of the area and started working as an over ground worker with the proscribed terrorist organization, Laskhar-e-Taiba. He was in close contact with various Kashmiri-origin terrorists based in PoJK, through encrypted messaging applications and had received arms and ammunitions for further delivery to the terrorists.