Properties of 100 convicted gangsters to be attached in Kapurthala
In May, district police attached such ill-gotten property valued at Rs 14.2 crore belonging to 26 drug smugglers
Local police have identified 100 convicted gangsters, who will have their property and assets attached over the next few weeks. A list has been compiled of properties where drug money has been invested and the value of these assets is around Rs 33 crore.
The majority of these properties include chunks of agricultural land and residential buildings, along with expensive vehicles and cash in bank accounts.
Work on attaching such ill-gotten assets is an ongoing process, but this year, police have adopted a more focused and targeted approach. To date this year, property worth Rs 18 crore has already been seized against the corresponding figure for 2019, which was only Rs 2 crore.
In May, police attached asserts of 26 drug smugglers valued at Rs 14.2 crore on the orders of the competent authority under the Smugglers and Foreign Exchange Manipulators (Forfeiture of Property) Act, and Section 68F (2) of Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.
Earlier this year, district police seized assets of around Rs 2 crore of five drug peddlers. This included a double-storey house and a vehicle worth Rs 55 lakh of Malkeet Singh in Latiyawal village and a house and a car of Harpreet Singh in Toti village valued at Rs 43 lakh.
“We have sent a list of eight more drug peddlers for the seizure of assets of around Rs 2.8 crore to the competent authority in Delhi this month. Thirty more gangsters are on our radar. Seizure of properties will break the backbone of illegal drug trade and will act as a deterrent,” SSP Satinder Singh said.
He added for specific, immediate seizure, properties of two more drug peddlers had been identified. “These Delhi-based smugglers are under arrest, and were active in this region for the higher profit margin.”
Tackling the issue of drug peddling from another front, the district police had also adopted 16 villages in 2019. On the list were the two villages of Latiyawal and Toti, notorious for this trade; 30 FIRs were registered under the NDPS Act in these villages in 2019. Under the police plan, the DSP supervises a ‘Nasha Mukti Dal’ (Freedom from Drugs group) in each of the adopted villages.