Dehradun: Dehradun police on Sunday afternoon nabbed three persons, including two Army jawans posted in the Military Hospital at Dehradun, and recovered 1 kg of smack— valued at Rs 5 crore in the international market — and a revolver along with 13 live cartridges from their possession. A case has been registered against the accused under section 8/21 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985, reported Times of India, an Indian newspaper.
The Army men were identified as Raju Sheikh and Phool Singh Yadav while the third accused Manju Rehman, was a cousin of Raju Sheikh. The three were nabbed at Nanda ki Chowki in Prem Nagar police station during routine checking.
Elaborating on the details of the case, Nivedita Kukreti, senior superintendent of police (SSP) Dehradun, said, “A police team stopped a SUV in which the accused were travelling in because it seemed suspicious. Upon checking the vehicle, the team found 1 kg of contraband inside.” She added that after interrogation of the accused, when it came out that the matter involved two Army personnel, senior Army officials were also informed. “A joint interrogation team has been formed consisting of police, Army intelligence, Narcotics Control Bureau, Intelligence Bureau and Local Intelligence Unit to grill the three accused,” she said.
While Raju Sheikh and his cousin brother Manju Rehman hail from Nadia district in West Bengal, Phool Singh belongs to Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh. Police officials said that the revolver that was seized was in the name of Phool Singh who joined the Army six years back and had been posted in Military Hospital since December 2014. Raju Sheikh was posted at the Army hospital in February this year. He has been serving in the Army for past 14 years.
The duo told police during questioning that to earn easy money, Raju Sheikh with the help of his brother Manju used to smuggle smack from Nadia in West Bengal for selling it in Dehradun. As Raju was posted in Military Hospital, he also roped in Phool Singh as a partner.
“This year itself, Raju Sheikh had gone on leave to his native place four times. He has confessed to bringing 50 gram of smack during his last visit to West Bengal,” the SSP said.
According to police officials, poppy is grown in Nadia district between May and December and peddlers use poppy husk to make smack to sell it in the market. They added that the name of the drug racket kingpin, who lives in West Bengal, had also surfaced during interrogation and efforts would be made to arrest him soon.
