New Delhi: A series of clues led Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) officers to the door of a village sarpanch in Punjab’s Tarn Taran in connection with a drug recovery case.
The first clue, a Toyota Fortuner with a registration number ending in 002, was traced to and found parked at the sarpanch’s house. The owner of this SUV was Harmanjit Singh, the sarpanch’s cousin, who was wanted in a case involving the recovery of 18 kilograms of banned substances near the Pakistan border. Investigators also traced multiple UPI transfers by the sarpanch to this absconding cousin.
Paramjit Singh alias Pamma, the sarpanch of Tarn Taran’s Kalsian village, was arrested early Tuesday morning. Pamma, considered close to the ruling Aam Aadmi Party, headed Kalsian’s village defence committees (VDCs), constituted under Punjab’s ‘War against Drugs’ campaign to curb drug smuggling cases. Investigators now say that Pamma was harbouring the absconding Harmanjit.
Officers also said that Harmanjit escaped before the Tuesday raid, in which Pamma was nabbed by the NCB.
According to the NCB, Harmanjit was absconding for nearly a month, after his name surfaced during an investigation into a drug recovery case. Officers said they started looking for him “after three couriers who had been supplying banned substances in cross-border consignments were arrested”.
“His SUV was traced to Pamma’s house in Kalsian village, and after further surveillance, Harmanjit was confirmed to be on the premises,” an officer told ThePrint.
“Analysis of Pamma’s WhatsApp chats revealed active communication between him and Harmanjit. Pamma was transferring funds to him—amounting to nearly Rs 30,000—through UPI. These facts clearly establish that he harboured and sheltered Harmanjit during his time on the run,” another officer said.
The AAP government in Punjab activated the village defence committees (VDCs) earlier this year, when Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann and the party’s national convener Arvind Kejriwal launched Phase 2 of ‘Yudh Nashian Virudh (War against Drugs)’ in Tarn Taran.
AAP Punjab media in-charge Baltej Pannu, in February this year, called the VDCs “frontline warriors” and the government’s “eyes and ears” against the drug mafia in the state.
One of them, Paramjit Singh, has now been booked under provisions of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985, including Section 27-A that punishes offences amounting to financing illicit traffic and harbouring offenders.
The case & the reactions
The case came to light when the NCB arrested three local men, identified as Jodhbir Singh alias Ranjot Singh, Harpal Singh, and Jasbir Singh, shortly after they collected a consignment of banned substances from the border region in the district.
The NCB recovered a total of 18 kg of contraband from the trio, including nine kg of heroin, six kg of ice, and three kg of opium, leading to the custodial interrogation of the men.
“They revealed that the consignments were being picked up by them for Harmanjit, and they had been doing this for the last couple of months. As soon as the trio was arrested, Haramnajit Singh switched off his phone and remained absconding,” another official said.
The development has drawn sharp reactions from the opposition political leaders in the state.
Congress MLA from Bholath, Sukhpal Singh Khaira, targeted the Mann-led government over the involvement of Paramjit Singh in the “high-level” drug trafficking.
“Is it ‘War against Drugs or Drugs against War’?…The said Sarpanch had put up welcome banners of Cm @BhagwantMann for his visit to Khemkaran on the 7th March and I’m sure he was present at the Cm rally too! So where’s the War Against Drugs if your near and dear ones are involved at such a high level of Drug-Trafficking!” Khaira wrote on X, uploading a picture of Paramjit with the local MLA.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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