Drug peddler had ISI links, was passing on vital Army info: Intel

Aman Sood

Patiala, September 2

The Punjab police — following specific inputs from the state intelligence — have established the active role of drug smuggler Amrik Singh with the Pakistan spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). The smuggler is serving sentence in a drugs case, but had escaped from Central Jail authorities in October 2022 only to be arrested in November.

“Before his arrest in a drugs case, Amrik Singh was using a foreign SIM card. When he was arrested in 2022 in a drugs case, a phone was seized from him. He had told interrogators that he did not recall the password following which it was sent for forensic analysis,” said SHO Ghaggar, Amanpal Virk.

Sources say that when the phone was unlocked, the intelligence wing found a 140-page report of an Army camp in Himachal Pradesh. “The entire movement of that Army camp, strength of the personnel, total vehicles and other details were sent to ISI official Sher Khan,” sources told The Tribune.

“There were many voice notes too that were shared with the ISI number detailing convoy movements and other details of that particular camp,” they added.

Confirming the developments, Patiala SSP Varun Sharma told The Tribune that the ISI had also sent two AK-47 weapons and around 250 bullets. “Based on the report received by us, we have registered a fresh FIR against Amrik Singh and the role of his relative working in the Army is also under the scanner. He is presently lodged in Patiala Central Jail. We will get him on remand and grill him to ascertain the facts,” he stated.

Interestingly, Amrik had escaped from hospital, where the jail officials had taken him for treatment on October 1, 2022, only to be arrested again in November.

Amrik, a resident of Dedhna village in Patiala, has been involved in smuggling drugs since 2004. He is said to be the brother of proclaimed offender Avtar Singh, involved in the Jagdish Bhola drug case.

Documents in possession of The Tribune suggest that despite being intimated in writing by the Police Department that Amrik could escape during a court hearing or hospital visit, the jail officials did not follow the SOPs.

“Following specific intelligence inputs, it is intimated that Amrik Singh can get himself admitted to a hospital on one pretext or the other during which he can get help from gangsters and escape,” reads a letter sent to the Superintendent, Central Jail, Patiala, on July 29, 2022 by the then Patiala Senior Superintendent of Police.

He faces 12 FIRs in Punjab, including two FIRs involving 8 kg heroin each. Considered a vital link between cross-border heroin network and local drug dealers, Amrik has now been booked under various Sections of the Official Secrets Act, 1923. “Police, intelligence and Army intelligence officials are likely to question Amrik in the next few days, given the seriousness of the case,” said a top official.