IEP Chandigarh, September 19
As part of the ongoing decisive war against drugs launched on the directions of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, Punjab Police have arrested 392 drug smugglers/suppliers after registering 294 first information reports (FIRs), including 33 commercial, under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) act across the state in the last one week. Inspector General of Police (IGP) Headquarters Sukhchain Singh Gill, while addressing his weekly press conference here on Monday said that the Police have also recovered 5.56Kg Heroin, 21.52Kg opium, 5Kg Ganja, 6.26 quintals of poppy husk, and 93261 tablets/capsules/injections/vials of Pharma opioids besides recovering Rs 8.92 lakh drug money after carrying out cordon and search operations in drug-affected areas beside laying nakas at vulnerable routes across the state. He said that with 25 more Proclaimed Offenders (POs)/Absconders in NDPS cases arrested this week, the total number of arrests reached 305 since the special drive to arrest POs/absconders was started on July 5, 2022. Pertinently, Director General of Police (DGP), Punjab Gaurav Yadav had given strict instructions to all the CPs/SSPs to investigate backward and forward linkages minutely in each and every case, especially related to drug recoveries, even if they recover the meager amount of drugs. Meanwhile, on the direction of Chief Minister Punjab Bhagwant Mann to make Punjab a drug-free state, extensive anti-drug drives have been launched by the Punjab Police to combat the menace of drugs from the border State. The DGP has also strictly ordered all the CPs/SSPs to identify all hotspots where drugs are prevalent and all top drug smugglers in their jurisdictions. He also directed the Police chiefs to effectively forfeit the property of all the arrested drug smugglers so that their ill-gotten money could be recovered.
