Hans News Service Chandigarh

Asserting that Punjab Police has delivered a decisive blow to drugs, DGP Gaurav Yadav on Wednesday said over 95,000 NDPS cases have been registered in the state since March 16, 2022, leading to over 1.27 lakh arrests and the recovery of over 7,260 kg of heroin.

Striking at the economic roots of the narco-trade, the DGP stated that the police have frozen properties worth Rs 902 crore belonging to drug traffickers, marking the highest forfeiture anywhere in the country, alongside securing an unprecedented 90 per cent conviction rate in courts. Furthermore, sustained anti-gangster operations launched in April 2022 have dismantled up to 1,288 organised criminal modules and led to the arrest of over 3,300 gang members, he said while speaking on the sidelines of a Police Commemoration Day ceremony, held to pay tributes to the personnel who laid down their lives in the line of duty.

The event was held at the Punjab Armed Police (PAP) Headquarters in Jalandhar. The National Police Commemoration Day is observed in memory of 10 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel who were killed on this day in 1959 in an ambush by Chinese troops in Ladakh’s Hot Spring area.

Outlining new strategic frameworks under the ongoing Yudh Nashian Virudh campaign, the DGP said that campaign has now transitioned into an intensive 60-day mission mode wherein all designated drug hotspots are being jointly monitored by senior police officers and gazetted officers from the civil administration round-the-clock.

The DGP outlined future strategies focused on dismantling financial networks, targeting drug hotspots, modernising infrastructure with over Rs 1,600 crore investment, and bolstering cyber security capacities to effectively suppress criminal syndicates across the state.