Drug haul: Factory of Arjuna awardee's kin searched

A factory belonging to relatives of an Arjuna award winner was today searched by Punjab police in a village in Fatehgarh Sahib in the wake of recovery of 26 kg haul of heroin with a street value of Rs 130 crore.

A senior police officer confirmed the raid and said two persons have been rounded up and were being interrogated.

The officer said police is conducting raids to arrest Arjuna awardee wrestler Jagdish Bhola, a dismissed DSP of Punjab Police, who is kingpin of a gang recently busted by Fatehgarh Sahib police with the arrest of an NRI Anup Singh Kahlon.

He said boxer Ram Singh during questioning told the police today that he and Olympic medallist boxer Vijender Singh had taken some substance as a "food supplement" which later turned out to be heroin.

They were not aware that it was heroin, Ram Singh claimed before the police.
Meanwhile Fatehgarh Sahib SSP Hardyal Singh Mann told PTI in Chandigarh that based on the interrogation of Kahlon and five others arrested in the case, the names of 4-5 persons engaged in the drug trade in the region had emerged.

Mann said that the police could not reveal these names as that would hamper the investigations.

"At the moment the priority is to zero in on these persons actively involved in the drug trade," the SSP said when asked if Olympian boxer Vijender was likely to be summoned for questions in the near future.

He said that presently only boxer Ram Singh being summoned for questioning on a day to day basis. The boxer has not been arrested; Mann said that Ram Singh was only being called for questioning.

Police said that the main kingpin Bhola continued to evade the police despite raids being conducted at various places in the region.

Olympian boxer Vijender Singh's sparring partner Ram Singh had during interrogation yesterday claimed that the duo "consumed small quantities of drug" on a few occasions, which was given to them by NRI Anup Singh Kahlon, key accused in a heroin haul case, who attempted suicide under police custody yesterday.

The sources said Ram Singh had told them that he had met Kahlon in the past but feigned ignorance about his criminal connections.

Ram told the Fatehgarh Sahib Police that Kahlon had first given him about 2 grams of heroin in December last year without charging money.

After that, between January 1 and February 26 this year, he and Vijender had consumed the drug on 2-3 occasions.

He also said that the first time Vijender had taken the contraband when the duo was driving from Chandigarh to National Institute of Sports in Patiala.

Ram Singh told the police that Vijender took the drug because he wanted to know why the former had vomited and what substance he had used. Ram has maintained that neither he nor Vijender was habitual drug user and that their consumption of the drug was an "experiment".

He also told the police that he and Vijender had not participated in any competitive event after consumption of the drug nor there were aware about Kahlon's involvement in drug trade.