Punjab: Jagdish Bhola, 16 others convicted in drugs trafficking-linked money’

Chandigarh: A special PMLA court in Punjab’s Mohali on Tuesday convicted 17 people, including “kingpin” Jagdish Singh alias Bhola, in a drugs trafficking linked money laundering case, official sources said.

Bhola, a wrestler-turned-policeman-turned-“drug mafia”, has been sentenced to 10 years in jail apart from another accused Avtar Singh Taro.

The federal probe agency launched an investigation in the case during 2013 taking cognisance of about eight Punjab Police FIRs registered across various police stations in the state.

The ED filed a charge sheet against 23 accused in this case in 2015 out of which two were declared proclaimed offenders while four died (resulting in abatement of proceedings) during the course of investigation or trial, the sources said.

This is one case where all the accused, as many as 17, named in a prosecution complaint have been convicted under the anti-money laundering law, they told PTI.

Apart from Bhola and Taro, others convicted are Sundeep Kaur, Jagminder Kaur, Gurpreet Kaur, Gurmeet Kaur, Sukhjit Singh Sukha, Sukhraj Singh, Gurdeep Singh Manchanda, Amarjeet Kaur, Devinder Singh, Maninder Singh, Subhash Bajaj, Sunil Bajaj, Ankur Bajaj, Dalip Singh Mann and Manpreet Singh.

The other accused have been sentenced to a jail term ranging from 3-10 years, the sources said.

The Bhola drugs money laundering case pertains to a multi-crore synthetic narcotics racket that was unearthed during 2013-14 in Punjab.

The ED arrested Bhola in January, 2014 and had attached assets worth Rs 95 crore. Bhola was also convicted in the Punjab Police cases. (PTI)