CHANDIGARH, March 31, 2013
The Fatehgarh Sahib drug seizure case took yet another sensational turn as the Punjab police on Sunday claimed that Olympic bronze medallist Vijender Singh consumed heroin at least 12 times after procuring it from alleged drug dealer Anoop Singh Kahlon, an NRI who has already been arrested in the case.
As investigations did not prove the direct involvement of Vijender and his sparring partner Ram Singh, they would not be arrested at the moment, the police said.
The police claimed their probe established that Ram Singh and Vijender took heroin from Kahlon and his associate Rocky for personal consumption between December 2012 and February 2013. First, in December, it was Ram Singh who procured the drugs and subsequently both the boxers went together to Zirakpur in search of heroin, once in January and twice in February.
The police said they had initated legal formalities for a court direction to procure Vijender’s blood and hair samples . The boxer had previously refused to oblige the investigators with the samples. The release said that as hair testing facilities were not available in local forensic science laboratories, FSL authorities had been asked to provide information about a competent facility in the country that could conduct the tests appropriately.
Meanwhile, the police claimed that after fresh seizures, the worth of drugs seized in the case now worked around to Rs 484 crore in the international market. On Sunday they seized 10 kg of methamphetamine, a chemical known as ‘Ice’ in the rave circuit and 230 kg of Pseudophedrine, which is used to prepare the contraband. Both ‘Ice’ and the raw material were to be smuggled to Europe and Canada through a UK national , who has already been arrested from Delhi in the case.
So far 15 persons, including two Canadian and one UK citizen have been arrested, while another 25 have been identified to be part of the international network. Another kingpin, Jagdish Bhola, a dismissed Punjab officer, figures among those absconding.
