Sacked inspector Inderjit Singh smuggled drugs from Pakistan via touts, BSF constable

Jupinderjit Singh

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 18

While allegedly enjoying the patronisation of senior police personnel, Inspector Inderjit Singh (since dismissed) operated on the field through a gang of drug smugglers, touts and a Border Security Force (BSF) constable to get drugs from Pakistan and show some of these as recovery while the remaining were planted on innocent persons.

The touts then prevailed upon those implicated in drug smuggling, both genuine and false, to pay a hefty amount to Inderjit to save themselves. The three drug investigation reports recently made public have uncovered the dismissed inspector’s racket of fleecing his department as well as the public.

The reports have touched upon the angle of smuggling drugs in Punjab while highlighting the complicity of senior police personnel with Inderjit.

Meanhwile, sources said some police officials used smugglers to order consignments of drugs from Pakistan. Once the consignments arrived, the police officials would show a part of the consignment as recovery, arrest one or two smugglers and mention that the remaining were absconding. This way the police officials made a name in the department by the inspector’s “ability and network” to recover drugs. The inspector made money by letting off some smugglers, selling drugs to others and planting these on innocents.

The modus operandi was highlighted by central security agencies at meetings with the Punjab Police a number of times. It is not part of the reports, but can be a subject of subsequent investigation. As part of the modus operandi, the police officials would not share the time and place of drug consignments with the BSF. This activity was reportedly going on for years till it was controlled recently following the intervention of senior BSF officials.

The reports by the special investigation team (SIT), led by DGP Siddharth Chatopadhyaya (now retired), Special DGP Prabodh Kumar and then IG (now AAP MLA) Kunwar Vijay Pratap Singh identified the gang of smugglers and touts of dismissed inspector Inderjit Singh and mentioned their activities.

In the first of the three reports, it has been stated that serious allegations of criminal misconduct on the part of Inderjit Singh have emerged in the investigation, including smuggling of drugs from Pakistan with the aid of smugglers like Gurjeet Singh, Sahab Singh, Dalbir Singh and BSF constable Suresh Tyagi.

Gurjeet Singh was a smuggler who used to get drugs from Pakistan while Sahab Singh and Dalbir Singh circulated these further. Sahab Singh is also listed as a tout of Inderjit in the SIT report. Sahab Singh forced an 18-year-old boy Satarpal Singh’s family to pay lakhs of rupees to Inderjit to save Satarpal from a drug smuggling case.

However, Inderjit, despite taking Rs 25 lakh from Prem Singh, father of Satarpal Singh, booked both of them under the NDPS Act and sent them to the Amritsar jail in November 2013 when Inderjit was the CIA in-charge with the Tarn Taran police, where Raj Jit Singh (now dismissed) was the SSP. Later, Sahab Singh got nominated in some other drug case and was also sent to the Amritsar jail. The report says Satarpal Singh confronted Sahab Singh in jail and gave him a good beating. Inspector Inderjit retaliated by nominating the teenage boy in another drug smuggling case.

The report further mentioned that later in June 2014, Inderjit registered a drug smuggling case against Gurjeet Singh, who was his key man earlier in the drug trade. The report does not mention the reason for Inderjit going against him. Gurjeet later died in a mysterious road accident. The Tarn Taran police failed to complete the investigation into the accident case.

Modus operandi

• Touts prevailed upon those implicated in drug smuggling cases to pay a hefty amount to Inderjit to save themselves
• Reports highlight complicity of senior police personnel with Inderjit
• Sources said once drugs arrived from Pakistan, cops would show a part as recovery and arrest one or two smugglers
• This way they made a name for themselves in the department through the inspector’s “network to recover drugs”
• The dismissed inspector reportedly made money by letting off some smugglers, selling drugs to others and planting drugs on innocents