Kangra police bust racket of drug peddlers in district

The Kangra police claimed to have busted a racket of drug peddlers operating in the district. According to the police, the arrested accused were also drug addicts, besides being peddlers. They used to target college students in different parts of the district to sell chitta (heroin). The accused used to source drugs from the adjoining state of Punjab.

Shallini Agnihotri, Superintendent of Police (SP), Kangra, said one of arrested drug peddler identified as Brijeshwar Kumar, alias Mamu, already had eight cases registered against him under the NDPS Act. Today, 11.96 grams of chitta was recovered from him by the Kangra police, she said. Another peddler identified as Rahul, who was drug addict and used to sell chitta to various people in the Kangra and Nagrota Bagwan area of the district, was also arrested, the SP said. He already had three cases registered against him under the NDPS Act, the SP said.

The SP further said both the accused were arrested from a place located near the IPH rest house in Kangra. When a police team arrested the duo, they already had taken shots of heroin. Hands of both the accused bore marks due to repeated intake of heroin, she said.

The SP said Brijeshwar Kumar used to target students of various groups and had links with Pawan and Jatinder from Nagrota Bagwan who were also involved in drug peddling. Both Pawan and Jatinder were arrested earlier by the police. With the arrest of all the accused a drug peddlers’ racket had been busted in the district, the SP claimed.

The SP said the Kangra police had adopted zero tolerance policy towards drug peddlers. All those arrested would be produced in a court tomorrow, she said. The police were trying to nab narcotic smugglers from adjoining states who supplied drugs to peddlers in Himachal Pradesh, the SP added. The Kangra police would also seize properties acquired by drug peddlers through money earned from the illegal trade, she said.