High-profile murders point to nexus between drug peddlers, gangsters

Tribune News Service

Deepender Deswal

Hisar, December 12

Investigations into the Sidhu Moosewala murder in Punjab and Sukhdev Singh Gogamedi’s killing in Rajasthan have revealed a growing nexus between drug peddlers and gangsters in Hisar, Sirsa and Fatehabad districts.

“Most of drug addicts, who also indulged in peddling of narcotics, are easy prey for gangsters as they get ready to work for them in lieu of money. This seems to be the reason behind involvement of drug peddlers from this region as informers or those who aided shooters in both the high-profile killings,” a police officer said.

This development prompted ADGP (Hisar Range) Shrikant Jadhav to direct the anti-narcotics cell and crime investigation agency of the districts to launch a crackdown on drug peddlers. “The police must prepare an action plan to destroy the drug network in Hisar and Dabwali in three months,” Jadhav said at a meeting with the SPs of Sirsa and Dabwali districts.

Police sources said a profile of 2,700 drug peddlers in Hisar, Fatehabad, Sirsa districts has been compiled.

In the murder of Shri Rashtriya Rajput Karni Sena chief Gogamedi, Udham Singh — one of the three youths arrested from Chandigarh on December 9 — is a resident of Satrod Kalan in Hisar district. He already has two cases lodged against him under the NDPS Act in Hisar. He was in contact with one of the two shooters Nitin Fauji and had accompanied them to Manali and Chandigarh.

His father Raj Kumar said Udham had fallen in bad company five years ago after completing ITI course in electronics and the family had disowned him.

In connection with singer-turned-politician Moosewala’s murder on May 29 last year, the police had arrested two accused from Kirmara in Hisar and another man Sandeep alias Kekra from Takhatmal village in Sirsa district. Kekra, a drug addict, was promised money by the shooters in lieu of providing information about Moosewala’s movement.

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