The Punjab police on Saturday arrested five persons who are said to be associates of Gavi Singh, a close aide of Gangster Jaipal, currently absconding.
Gavi Singh was apprehended by the police on April 26 in a joint operation by the Organised Crime Control Unit (OCCU) of Punjab Police and SAS Nagar Police from Sarai Kila Kharsawa district in Jharkhand.
The arrested persons have been identified as Karanbir Singh, a resident of village Akbarpura, Harmanjit Singh of village Johla, Gurjaspreet Singh of village Bathal Bhai Ke and Rawinder Iqbal Singh of Hanslawala, all villages falling in district Tarn Taran while Samuel alias Sam belongs to Ferozepur. All the accused persons have been facing several criminal cases across different districts of Punjab, said the police.
According to Director General of Police (DGP) Punjab Dinkar Gupta, "The police have recovered 1.25 kg heroin from Gavi's rented flat located at Urban Homes-2 in Kharar besides seizing three Pistols including one .30 calibre Chinese pistol and two .32 calibre pistols and 23 live cartridges from his hideouts."
"Three vehicles, including Toyota Fortuner, Mahindra Scorpio and Hyundai Verma, which were being used for drug smuggling have also been recovered," he added.
He said that Samuel, who was staying with Gavi in Jamshedpur, had managed to fly to Delhi prior to Gavi's arrest. Samuel, a close aide of Gavi, is learnt to have handled the distribution of heroin smuggled from Pakistan, Gupta said.
The DGP said, "In the ongoing investigations, Gavi had revealed that he had smuggled over 500 kgs of heroin, along with weapons from Pakistan and supplied into Punjab, Delhi and Jammu & Kashmir, over the last two and half years."
According to the police, Gavi has shared that there was a thriving smuggling infrastructure on the Indo-Pak border many Pakistan based smugglers were actively involved in smuggling and induction of weapons and drugs into India. Gavi is also learnt to have made a large number of financial transactions with individuals and entities based in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan through the havala route as well as through import/export companies based in New Delhi, which would require a deeper probe.
"Gavi also admitted having acquired a forged Indian Passport from a travel agent on fake particulars and was planning to settle in Portugal," said DGP Dinkar Gupta.
He also said that the bank accounts and properties of Gavi have been identified and shared with concerned agencies for further action. Other associates of Gangster Gavi have also been identified and Punjab police has launched a manhunt to nab all the accused persons in this case, he concluded.
( With inputs from ANI )
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