Heroin worth Rs 2,000 crore seized in Amritsar, 6 held

The Punjab Police seized nearly 200 kg heroin, claimed to be worth around Rs 2,000 crore, from a house in Sultanwind village of Amritsar district and arrested six people, including a Afghan national, officials said on Friday.

Acting on a tip-off, police raided the house in Akash Avenue late night on Thursday and recovered the heroin along with other contraband, said Special Task Force chief Harpreet Sidhu.

In addition to 194.15 kg heroin, 38 kg dextromethorphan, 25 kg caffeine powder, probably used to cut and mix the heroin, and six drums of chemical composition weighing 207 kg were also recovered, he said.

An illegal lab was found set up inside the house where preparation, mixing and cutting of drugs was taking place, Sidhu said.

The Afghan national arrested during the raid had come to India a week ago and his task was to dilute, refine and mix the high-quality heroin, he said.

Among the other five accused are Sukwinder Singh, Major Singh and Tamanna Gupta.

Chief Minister Amarinder Singh said Punjab police had busted a major narco-terror racket.

Addressing a press conference at Chandigarh in the evening, the chief minister asserted that those involved in the case will not be spared.

We will not allow drug smugglers, narco-gangsters and narco-terrorists to spread their wings in the state, he said.

Amarinder alleged that the house from which the police seized the contraband belonged to one Anwar Masih, who was a member of the Subordinate Services Board and appointed by the previous SAD-BJP government.

An investigation is underway to ascertain ascertain Masih's involvement in the case, who claimed to have rented the house, the CM said.

Preliminary investigation revealed that the accused were using the premises for the last one month, Amarinder said.

He said the drug peddlers were linked to Simranjit Singh Sandhu, who was recently detained in Italy on a lookout notice from Interpol on the request of Gujarat police.

We will seek remand of Sandhu, who holds an Australian passport and was detained in Italy," the CM said.

"The contraband seized in Amritsar appears to be a part of the consignment of 300 kgs of drugs that arrived in Mandavi in Gujarat last year, of which 200 kg was smuggled into Punjab. The consignment had been traced to Sandhu," he said.

The chief minister said the government wants to eliminate the drug menace from Punjab.

Flanked by DGP Dinkar Gupta, Amarinder said the Afghan national was identified as Armaan Basharmal.

Asked about the value of the the contraband seized in Amritsar, the DGP said it was estimated to be around Rs 2,000 crore.