Punjab gangster Jaggu Bhagwanpuria transferred to Assam's Silchar jail

CHANDIGARH: Punjab police's ongoing crackdown on drug-related crimes, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has detained jailed gangster Jaggu Bhagwanpuria under the Prevention of Illicit Traffic in Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances (PIT NDPS) Act. He was shifted from the high-security Bathinda Central Jail to Silchar Jail in Assam.
On Saturday, a joint team of the NCB and Punjab police escorted Bhagwanpuria to Chandigarh, from where he was flown to Assam via Delhi and Kolkata. A four-member NCB team oversaw the transfer, and he was lodged in Silchar Jail on Sunday morning.
Fourth detention under PIT NDPS Act
This marks the fourth detention from Punjab under the stringent PIT NDPS Act, which allows alleged drug traffickers to be jailed without bail for up to one year.
In August last year, the NCB detained three other alleged drug lords from Punjab under the same law—Akshay Chhabra, Jaspal Singh (alias Goldy), and Balwinder Singh (alias Billa Havelian). They were shifted to Dibrugarh Jail in Assam.
At the time of their detention, Chhabra and Goldy were already lodged in Punjab jails on drug-related charges. Billa Havelian, however, was arrested from Gurdaspur in a joint operation by the NCB and Punjab Police before being sent to Assam.
Targeting drug syndicates in Punjab prisons
Authorities suspect that these detained gangsters were running drug syndicates from inside Punjab’s prisons. The detentions under the PIT NDPS Act aim to break their criminal networks.
A government official commented, "During their detention in Assam Jail, they now realise what actual imprisonment is."