New Delhi: Investigators uncovered unlikely hideouts for suspected gangsters in Ludhiana’s Khanna–illegal deaddiction centres that allegedly help criminal syndicates recruit and shelter those involved in their networks.
Joint teams from Khanna police and the Ludhiana health department on 30 January raided four unlicensed centres allegedly run by two locals, both of them cousins, facing criminal cases.
Punjab Police told ThePrint they rescued 150 patients from these rehabilitation centres, including 30 who were at some point or the other incarcerated and have pending cases against them.
Among them is proclaimed offender Maninder Singh – an alleged associate of gangster Amrik Singh alias Vicky Marado. Maninder was declared a proclaimed offender after a 2020 firing and extortion case and had undergone a complete makeover since then to avoid detection, police said.
The other suspects face charges under the Arms Act and attempted murder, among others.
“The disclosure of facts during the interrogations of various gangster associates was an exposé of these rapidly mushrooming illegal deaddiction centres. In addition to social media being a grooming and recruitment platform of foot soldiers of gangsters and their associates, such centres also serve the same sinister purpose across the state,” said Dr Darpan Ahluwalia, Senior Superintendent of Police, Khanna.
Ahluwalia said police are looking to dismantle the ecosystem of gangster networks under the Punjab government’s ‘Gangstran Te Vaar (War against Gangsters)’ campaign.
Also Read: Punjab’s deadly new phase of criminal violence — ‘fusion of gangs with terrorism’
Trail of investigation
The breakthrough came during the interrogation of two men, suspected to be linked to a close associate of Lawrence Bishnoi and his gang members. They were arrested the day before Punjab Police launched the campaign against gangsters on 20 January.
Police had been searching for Harsimran Singh Mand in connection with an October 2025 case when they intercepted him along with Evanjot Singh alias Evan Mandal in the town on 19 January, Deputy Superintendent of Police Mohit Singla told ThePrint.
Mand is believed to be close to Rajveer Singh alias Ravi Rajgarh, who is allegedly linked to the Lawrence Bishnoi gang. Rajgarh, who has 17 cases against him, allegedly played a central role in arranging forged passports for Bishnoi’s brother Anmol and relative Sachin, enabling them to flee the country years ago.
He was arrested by the Punjab Anti-Gangster Task Force in 2023, but was let out on bail.
Rajgarh was also a suspect in a National Investigation Agency case related to arms and ammunition supply to the Bishnoi gang. NIA raided his ancestral house in Rajgarh village, Ludhiana, in November 2022. He was arrested again in July last year when he visited his father, a village sarpanch, and was charged in the killing of a kabaddi player in Khanna in November 2025. He is currently lodged in Bathinda jail.
Police said that during interrogation, Mand and Evanjot told them that deaddiction centres had been used by them and other gangsters as hideouts to evade arrests.
No licence, no treatment
The raided centres, police said, lacked requisite health department licences and the infrastructure or medical setup necessary for deaddiction treatment. Patients told investigators they were never treated with any deaddiction regime and faced inhumane treatment instead.
The two men who ran these centres, police said, were cousins Jaswinder Singh and Narinder Pal Singh, both with criminal backgrounds. Jaswinder faces three criminal cases, while Narinder Pal is named in a cheating case against him.
They were arrested on the day of the raids and booked under sections 115(2) (voluntarily causing hurt), 127(2) (wrongful confinement), 318(4) (cheating), 351(2) (criminal intimidation), and 61(2) (criminal conspiracy) – of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.
“Jaswinder and Narinder Pal are drug addicts themselves. They collect huge amounts from family members of these youths. They did not give proper food to the youths admitted at the centres and did not take proper care. Some of them were kept imprisoned in the room against their will,” a police officer wrote in the complaint.
Police sources said the cousins would wear the Nihang attire, and forced patients there to don the same.
Crime roster
Maninder Singh was declared a proclaimed offender in September 2020 after Ludhiana Police booked him and his gang leader Marado following a businessman’s complaint, alleging they were threatening him with an extortion demand of Rs 30-35 lakh.
A Ludhiana court in October 2024 closed the case, acquitting some of Marado’s associates, but said it would be revived upon his arrest along with that of two suspects. Marado is named in 11 cases across Punjab, including for attempted murder and charges under the Arms Act.
Other patients at the rehabilitation centres included Amit Singh, who had a decade-old murder and rioting case; Varinder Singh alias Jassi, who faced charges of attempted murder and criminal conspiracy; and a Jalandhar resident with a 2023 case under the NDPS Act and Arms Act.
With the exception of the proclaimed offender, all of them were shifted to the nearest health centre or chose to go home. Police said some of them were out on bail, and some of them face charges that don’t involve jail terms.
A pattern?
The issue of illegally run rehabilitation centres in rural areas emerged in 2018 and became serious enough for the Punjab and Haryana governments to seek framing of stricter standard operating procedures.
According to health department data, the Punjab government has shut down more than 25 illegal centres across districts, including Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Amritsar, Patiala, and Bathinda since 2024.
“If gangsters are targeting vulnerable youths, or rather, running deaddiction centres illegally where people addicted to drugs are being used for criminal purposes, it is a concerning development,” a Punjab Police officer said.
(Edited by Prerna Madan)
Also Read: Punjab is caught in a ‘vicious circle’—guns, gangs, lack of jobs & a strained police force