Govt school teacher among 6 held for drug trafficking in Punjab

Chandigarh, Sep 18 (PTI) Two women, including a government school teacher, were among six people held for trafficking drugs in two separate operations, Punjab Police said on Thursday. Around 9 kg of heroin was seized from them.

Director General of Police Gaurav Yadav said the accused were identified as Honey, 18, Parmdeep Singh alias Paras, 18, Harwinder Singh alias Hinda, 19, Gurpreet Singh alias Gopi, 25 -- all residents of Amritsar -- Jasbir Kaur, 40, and Kulwinder Kaur, 54, both hailing from Tarn Taran.

Kulwinder Kaur used to teach at a government primary school, Amritsar Police Commissioner Gurpreet Singh Bhullar told reporters.

The development came a day after Amritsar Commissionerate Police unearthed a drug smuggling syndicate being operated by Moga-based Jagpreet Singh alias Jagga, with the arrest of its key operative, identified as Yasin Mohammed and seized 7.1 kg of heroin from his possession.

Yadav said preliminary investigation revealed that a foreign-based notorious gangster identified as Harpreet alias Happy Jatt, a native of Jandiala Guru, had direct links with Pakistan-based smugglers and was running this network using social media platforms.

The DGP said two separate FIRs have been registered at Chheharta Police Station in Amritsar, and further investigation is ongoing to identify wider networks and cross-border linkages in both cases.

Bhullar said initially, Honey was arrested with 20 gm of heroin. During questioning, Parmdeep Singh's name came up, and he, too, was arrested with 5.032 kg of heroin.

Subsequently, two more members of the module -- Harwinder Hinda and Gurpreet Gopi -- were arrested. Police teams seized an additional chunk of 3.010 kg of heroin from Gurpreet, taking the total recovery to 8.062 kg.

Bhullar said Gurpreet and Parmdeep used to receive narcotics consignments dropped using drones from across the border at pre-decided locations like garbage piles or near poles with signs.

The duo was distributing the heroin on the instructions of Happy Jatt, he added.

In another operation, Bhullar said Jasbir Kaur and Kulwinder Kaur were arrested with 1.004 kg of heroin.

Arrested accused Jasbir Kaur was in direct contact with Pakistan smugglers, he said, while adding that both the modules have common Pakistan-based smugglers. PTI CHS RHL