13 held in Mansa raids for drug peddling

Mansa: Continuing with its drive against drug abuse, the Mansa police in the wee hours of Sunday deployed 650 cops for extensive searches at various places in the district. During the searches the cops swooped on the houses of 51 persons suspected for drug peddling or liquor smuggling in the district. During the search operation the district police registered 11 cases under the NDPS Act and the Excise Act and arrested 13 persons.

During the search operation the police stopped a SUV at Dharampura village and seized 100 cases (1,200 bottles) of countrymade liquor being smuggled from Haryana. The police arrested vehicle driver Puran Singh of Badbar village in Barnala district while his accomplice Bantu Singh escaped.

Mansa SSP Narinder Bhargav said during questioning Puran said he had smuggled a liquor case from Tohana in Haryana for Rs 600 per bottle and was to sell the same in Punjab for Rs 1,000 per bottle. Apart from it, the police seized 571 more liquor bottles smuggled from Haryana, habit-forming pills and poppy husk in small quantities.

Mansa police arrested one person carrying 660 bags of wheat in a truck worth Rs 6.62 lakh. The wheat loaded from godowns of the Food Corporation of India (FCI) at Dabwali in Haryana was to be delivered at Fatehnagar in Uttar Pradesh but it was being taken towards Barnala in Punjab.

SSP Narinder Bhargav said police got a tip-off that a truck with pilfered bags of wheat was coming towards Mansa.