India’s state Police bust Pakistan-sponsored arms smuggling racket

A Pakistan-sponsored drugs and illegal arms smuggling racket have been busted with the arrest of four people, including their kingpin who is a BSF constable posted in Samba district of Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab police officials in India said.

Foreign-made weapons, including a 9 mm pistol along with 80 live cartridges, etched with Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) markings, two magazines and two cartridges of 12 bore along with Rs 32.30 lakh in drug proceeds were recovered from BSF constable Sumit Kumar.

Director General of Police (DGP) Dinkar Gupta said Constable Sumit Kumar of Gurdaspur district was apprehended along with three other members – Simarjit Singh, Manpreet Singh and Amanpreet Singh.

Gupta said Jalandhar (Rural) Police arrested Amanpreet Singh on July 11 for murdering Jagjit. During investigation, Amanpreet disclosed that he and his brothers were in touch with one Shah Musa of Pakistan for smuggling of narcotics and weapons across the Indo-Pak border.

Amanpreet said they had come into contact with Shah Musa through Manpreet Singh and a constable of the Border Security Force posted on the Jammu & Kashmir border.

DGP Gupta said Constable Sumit Kumar had earlier been lodged in the Gurdaspur jail during the trial of a murder case, where he had come in contact with Manpreet Singh.

He further said the conspiracy to smuggle drugs and weapons from across the border was hatched in the Gurdaspur jail.

Armed with these disclosures, the Jalandhar Rural Police arrested Simarjit and Manpreet on July 12, while the BSF constable was arrested in coordination with the BSF after the DGP took up the matter personally with his BSF counterpart on July 11.