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Notorious gangster and drug trafficker Jagdeep Singh, alias Jaggu Bhagwanpuria, has been shifted from Bathinda (Punjab) to Central Jail, Silchar (Assam) under the Prevention of Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (PITNDPS) Act, 1988, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) said in a statement on Sunday.
A native of Punjab's Gurdaspur, Bhagwanpuria has been involved in 128 criminal cases, including high-profile murder cases, extortion, arms smuggling, and 12 cases under the NDPS Act since 2012. He is also an accused in the murder of Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala. His vast criminal network has facilitated the smuggling of heroin, opium, psychotropic substances, and illegal arms. Officials said that despite being lodged in high-security jails in Punjab, Bhagwanpuria continued to run his criminal empire using mobile phones from prison. His connections with international operatives in Canada, the USA, and Pakistan prompted the decision to shift him to Assam in a bid to disrupt his operations. In a similar operation, two other high-profile drug traffickers, Akshay Chhabra and Jaspal Goldy, who continued their illicit activities despite being imprisoned, were relocated from Punjab to Dibrugarh Central Jail (Assam) under the PITNDPS Act. Additionally, long-time offender Balwinder Singh, alias Billa Havellian, active since 1992 with cross-border smuggling ties to Pakistan, was detained under PITNDPS at Dibrugarh Central Jail on August 13, 2024. Meanwhile, a drug trafficking network operating from West Bengal, led by Jahanara Begum, along with Insan Laskar, Manuyara Bibi Seikh, and Arjun Manna, was dismantled. These traffickers, repeatedly involved in heroin and ganja smuggling, were relocated to Jayprakash Narayan Central Jail, Hazaribagh (Jharkhand), after a preventive detention order was issued on September 5, 2024. These operations follow detailed intelligence inputs and investigations that exposed the continued involvement of jailed criminals in running drug syndicates from behind bars. The PITNDPS Act of 1988 enables authorities to take preventive measures by isolating offenders and severing their prison-based networks. The NCB's relentless efforts align with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of a "Nasha Mukt Bharat" by 2047. Under the leadership of Home Minister Amit Shah, the agency is working aggressively to dismantle narcotics syndicates. As part of this mission, 29 drug traffickers have been convicted in 12 different cases across India, following a foolproof bottom-to-top and top-to-bottom investigation strategy, the NCB added. (ANI)
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