Punjab’s famous winter kabaddi tournaments, usually organised by NRIs, are missing from the countryside. The sporting extravaganzas have become the first casualties of the ongoing investigation into a multicrore drug racket that has also singed top politicians across the State.
Punjabi NRIs are giving kabaddi the miss this year after the Punjab police declared that they have 40 prominent NRIs on their radar who are being used as couriers by the drug cartel operating from Punjab and neighbouring States.
The police learnt from the confession of former cop turned drug lord Jagdish Bhola — one of the 52 people arrested so far — that some prominent kabaddi players, who are now settled in Canada and European countries, promote the game in Punjab and abroad and use kabaddi tournaments as platforms to smuggle synthetic drugs.
Patiala’s Senior Superintendent of Police Hardyal Singh Mann told The Hindu that lookout notices were issued for several NRIs associated with the sport and they are likely to apprehend them as soon as they come to India.
The police are also keeping a tab on those regulars who skip a visit to Punjab this winter, as it will strengthen the suspicion about their links with the drug business.
In the last several months, the Patiala police have arrested drug smugglers, couriers, and kingpins. Among them are policemen, award winning sportsmen and politicians.
Most of those arrested so far belong to Punjab, and the police said the major items smuggled to the West are precursor chemicals such as ephedrine and pseudoephedrine used in the manufacture of methamphetamine or ‘ice,’ a party drug.
Baltej Pannu, a Canadian NRI in Jalandhar, said Punjabis had come under the scrutiny of the Canadian police because of their involvement in the racket. He said Punjabi owners of grocery stores in Canada are big smugglers as they take import containers full of goods from India.
“Every Punjabi in Canada knows who is smuggling drugs from Punjab. With this investigation, there is relief in the community there because the end users of the drugs were also the Punjabi youths in those countries,” Mr. Pannu said.
He said senior police officers and politicians used to be invited to the kabaddi tournaments as guests and given lavish gifts in return for turning a blind eye to the behind-the-scene operations.
“I know of some senior police officers who were given free air tickets to visit those countries, and lavish hospitality was extended to them,” said former cop Shashi Kant Sharma, who is now a crusader against drugs in Punjab.
Mr. Pannu said Canadian NRI circles were abuzz with rumours that instead of kabaddi couriers coming to Punjab this winter, a couple of Punjab politicians have instead paid a visit to Canada.
Over 30 people have been killed in drug wars in Canada alone in the last few years, he said, adding that the most recent case was that of a top smuggler being arrested there for burning alive a courier in Canada.
The Punjab Congress has been holding a dharna demanding that the investigation into the drug racket be given to the Central Bureau of Investigation. As the protest entered its fifth day on Thursday, all of Punjab was agog with how the names of one Minister and the PCC president himself have been linked to the drug bust.
Mr. Sharma, who is a petitioner in a PIL into the matter in the Punjab and Haryana High Court, said “while it is important to probe the role of NRI Punjabis, the names of the politicians whose names have surfaced should also be investigated.”
