STF nabs drug peddler with 260 gm of heroin

Tribune News Service

Mohali, September 14

Sleuths of the Special Task Force (STF), Mohali, have nabbed a notorious drug peddler, who has been declared as a proclaimed offender in five cases of drug peddling, with 260 grams of heroin here.

The accused has been identified as Pritpal Singh, alias Bitta, a native of Amritsar, who was currently residing in Ropar.

Apart from drugs, the police have also recovered an Activa scooter from his possession, which he was using to supply heroin to his regular customers at the old bus stand in Mohali.

Giving information, STF Superintendent of Police Rajinder Singh Sohal said during his preliminary interrogation, the accused confessed that a close kin had brought him into drug peddling in 2004 after he suffered losses in the jewellery business.

“He also confessed that he had supplied drugs for his brother-in-law’s brother from Amritsar to some Nigerian in Delhi a number of times for which he used to get Rs 6,000 per assignment,” said SP Sohal. First case against him was registered by the DRI, Amritsar, which had nabbed him with 10-kg heroin in 2005.

“He was awarded 15-year sentence in that case. He had jumped the parole after being lodged in the Amritsar Jail for around seven months then. Then Bitta had started supplying drugs with another miscreant, Harpreet Singh, alias Chittu. He met Chittu in a jail,” said the SP, adding that Chittu had links with Pakistan-based drug suppliers.

“Chittu and Bitta used to procure drugs in a large quantity from Pakistan and had supplied it in villages located in the border belt,” said SP Sohal.

Bitta was also nabbed by the Counter Intelligence Team, Amritsar, with 3-kg heroin and drug money of Rs 22 lakh in 2015.

“Then he was again lodged in the Central Jail in Amritsar from where he was shifted to the Kapurthala Jail. Bitta had escaped from the police clutches when he was shifted to a hospital for an operation of his eye and hid in a village near the Nepal border with the help of his woman accomplice, identified as Nisha,” said the SP.

After changing his identity to Manjit Singh by forged documents, Bitta returned to Punjab and started living in a rented accommodation at Ropar.

SP Sohal said Bitta, who has been declared as a proclaimed offender in five cases of drug peddling, was still in contact with Chittu and other drug suppliers, including Boota, a resident of Khemkaran.

The STF had registered a case against Bitta under Sections 21, 61 and 85 of the NDPS Act at its police station in Phase 4, here.