Drugs haul case: Vijender Singh took heroin 12 times, says Punjab Police

In fresh trouble for international boxer and Olympic medallist Vijender Singh, Punjab Police on Sunday said he had consumed heroin 12 times after procuring it from alleged drug smugglers including NRI Anoop Singh Kahlon.

"As per investigation conducted so far, Vijender Singh consumed the drug about 12 times and Ram Singh (his sparring partner) about five times," a Punjab Police statement said here.

Kahlon alias Ruby, the alleged Canada-based drug dealer, was arrested by police on March three and 26 kg of heroin worth Rs 130 crore seized from his residence in Zirakpur on the outskirts of Chandigarh.

The Punjab police spokesperson said, "it has been established that Boxers Ram Singh and Vijender Singh took heroin from Kahlon and his aide Rocky for personal consumption between December 2012 and February 2013." While Ram Singh alone procured heroin in December 2012, subsequently both the boxers went together to Zirakpur for procuring the drug once in January and two times in February this year, the police said.

Vijender, who has denied any involvement in the drugs racket, was not immediately available for comments.

The police statement further said, "However, they (Vijender and Ram Singh) did not actively connive with the smugglers in their activities and nothing was recovered from them - as such both of them are not being arrested in the case at this stage."

The police said it was initiating steps to take the hair sample of Vijender for being tested by the Forensic Science Laboratory. Vijender has so far refused to give his blood and hair samples for the purpose.

Vijender, a DSP with Haryana Police, had spoken to Kahlon on phone about 80 times and they knew each other well, according to his call records scanned by Punjab police which appeared to have tightened its noose around the star boxer in the heroin haul case.

Both Vijender and Kahlon had exchanged some ten SMSes on their cell phones, they added. The duration of each call was between two to three minutes, police sources said. The sources said Vijender and Ram Singh were "well known" to Kahlon. Vijender, a DSP with Haryana police, was in touch with Kahlon since August last year.

The sources said that during interrogation, Ram Singh had claimed that he used to often talk to Kahlon on Vijender's phone.

DIG (Ludhiana range) M F Farooqui said police have decided to file a plea in court seeking direction to get Vijender's blood and hair samples to confirm whether he used to consume the drug.

Ram Singh was dismissed as Head Constable from Punjab Police after he admitted that he had procured and consumed heroin from the drug dealers.

The spokesperson clarified that the primary focus of the police is to nab the active smugglers and break their network.

Kahlon had divulged during his interrogation that he used to speak to Ram Singh, who admitted that he had consumed heroin for "fun" on a few occasions along with Vijender, who shot into limelight after winning bronze medal in the middleweight category at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Vijender's name had cropped up in the drug haul case after the SUV of his wife was found outside Kahlon's residence in Shivalik Vihar in Zirakpur when the contraband was recovered by Fatehgarh Sahib police on March seven.

Sub-Inspector Sarabjit Singh, who was close to a retired Senior Superintendent of Police, was also dismissed by the Punjab police in connection with the drug haul case.

Police said it has intensified searches to nab alleged drug racket kingpin Jagdish Bhola, a dismissed Punjab police DSP.

Bhola, who was absconding since March 7, had gone to Sarabjit's house on March 11 from where he made telephone calls to his associates using a mobile phone registered in the name of Sarabjit's wife Reet Sidhu. Police claimed Sarabjit is an active member of the gang of smugglers headed by Kahlon and Bhola.

They alleged that Sarabjit aided Bhola in fleeing and arranged hideouts for him.
Police have arrested around 15 persons in the case so far. Besides Kahlon, six others including his driver Kulwinder Singh alias Rockey, Kuldip Singh (father of Rockey), Sandeep Singh (brother-in-law of Rockey), Gabbar Singh, Manpreet Singh Gill alias Mani and a Ludhiana-based Pharma company employee Sunil Katyal have been arrested.