Punjab: Three more who were part of cross-border arms smuggling module nabbed

Chandigarh: The Punjab police on Saturday claimed to have arrested three more members of the drone-based arms smuggling module and recovered Rs 1.01 crore, 500 grams of heroin, 17 pistols along with their 400 live cartridges and one M-4 rifle along with its 300 live cartridges, from their possession.

Stating that a total of five members of this module have so far been arrested, the director general of police (DGP) Gaurav Yadav said that those arrested on Saturday were identified as Surinder Singh of village Barwala in Tarn Taran, Harchand Singh and Gursahib Singh, both residents of Valtoha in Amritsar.

Earlier on Wednesday, the police team from Amritsar had arrested two members of this module including a prisoner identified as Jaskaran Singh and his aide Rattanbir Singh and recovered 10 foreign-made pistols from locations revealed by them, taking total recovery of pistols to 27.

DGP Yadav said that during investigations of Jaskaran Singh and Rattanbir Singh it had also come to light that their associate Surinder had picked up the consignment of arms and ammunition that was previously smuggled by them with the help of drones from Pakistan.

Following inputs, police arrested Surinder on Friday and recovered 10 pistols along with six magazines and 100 live cartridges from his possession, he added.

The police chief said that after investigations have also revealed that Surinder, on the directions of Jaskaran Singh, used to pick up consignments from Rattanbir to further deliver them to Harchand and Gursahib.

The Police have recovered the remaining part of consignment from their possession which includes seven pistols, one M-4 rifle and 500 grams heroin, besides, Rs 1.01 crore cash, weighing machines and currency counting machines from their possession.

The assistant inspector general (AIG) of police, counter intelligence wing, Amritsar, Amarjit Singh Bajwa said that during investigations, accused Jaskaran also said that he was in contact with a Pakistan-based smuggler identified as Asif, who used to deliver consignment of narcotics and arms and ammunition from Pakistan using drone and Rattanbir used to retrieve them on his directions.