Ludhiana: Accused turned to opium sale after betting loss, say cops
After a 31-year-old man was caught in possession of a large quantity of opium at Ludhiana Junction government railway police (GRP),officials said that he wanted to sell the contraband to recover a loss of over three lakh rupees suffered in an online betting application.
The accused, Santosh Singh, was arrested on May 16 with 16 kg of opium,the largest quantity recovered by the department so far. Santosh, a resident of Chatra district in Jharkhand, was caught while attempting to leave the station through an alternate route. According to inspector Palwinder Singh, station house officer (SHO) of the GRP station at Ludhiana Junction, Santosh raised suspicion after he was seen heading towards the Lakkar bridge from platform number 4-5, carrying a large backpack.
Initial investigation had revealed that Santosh had been working at an eatery in Bhogpur near Jalandhar. He had returned to his hometown in Jharkhand for Holi and was allegedly transporting the contraband back as he resumed work.
Inspector Palwinder Singh said that when Santosh was at his hometown, he got hooked to an online betting app. The addiction ended in a loss of three lakh rupees. To make up for his losses he gathered a huge tranche of opium and set out for Jalandhar. The SHO further claimed that this was not his first attempt.
'He had tried selling around 1kg of opium in December last year. He tried to repeat it but only on a larger scale as he wanted to compensate for the losses incurred in online betting,' said Palwinder Singh.
Explaining how the accused sold opium, inspector Singh, said that he would initiate conversations with truck drivers at dhabas and then slip in opium offers and get customers.
Inspector Singh said that GRP had checked Santosh's bank transactions to verify his history of betting.
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