The Anti Narcotics Task Force (ANTF) of Punjab Police has arrested former Assistant Inspector General (AIG) Racchpal Singh in connection with a fake drug seizure case dating back to 2017. Police officials have obtained his remand from a local court, though no formal confirmation has yet been issued.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had earlier filed a chargesheet in 2022 against 10 police officials, including Racchpal Singh, accusing them of fabricating evidence to falsely implicate a resident of a border village. The officials were charged under multiple IPC sections, including fabrication of evidence, falsification of records, and criminal conspiracy, along with relevant provisions of the NDPS Act.
The case originated in 2017, when a villager alleged that Punjab Police officials had abducted him from a hospital and framed him for smuggling heroin from Pakistan. Subsequent investigations by the CBI uncovered major discrepancies through call detail records and CCTV footage.
Following a High Court directive in 2019, then DGP (Bureau of Investigation) Pramod Ban conducted an inquiry, revealing that the heroin seized had actually been recovered from another man, Gurjant Singh alias Sonu, but was falsely shown as seized from Balwinder Singh to fabricate a case.
The arrest of Racchpal Singh marks a major development in the long-running case that exposed deep-rooted corruption and evidence tampering within sections of the Punjab Police.