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US cops caught them in cocaine
racket, villagers says
they are good men
WSN Network
JAGRAON: Three Jagraon youth arrested by the Bakersfield Drug Enforcement Wing in
the USA
on June 27 for allegedly running a cocaine racket are regarded as
philanthropists by residents of their native villages. Villagers
said it is impossible that the youth could be involved in something
like drug running and were rather angels as they had pumped in
several crores of rupees in social welfare activities during the
past few years.
The youth,
identified as Harjeet Mann (39) of Gureh village, Jasdev Singh (33)
and Sukhraj Dhaliwal (38) of Cheemna village, near Jagraon, were
arrested in an undercover operation by officers of Kern County
Sheriff ’s Department. The latter posed as cocaine dealers and
seized 40 kg of cocaine and $845,000 from their possession in a
Bakersfield restaurant.
Charging them
with operating a drug racket in
North America,
the police said the youth were in the top rung of the organisation
that had been pushing drugs into US and Canadian states for quite
some time.
In their native
villages, however, the residents are all praise for them. They said
the youth had been ‘selflessly’ donating money for needy people and
in return never sought anything, not even publicity during their
Punjab
visits.
“Ever since they
have settled in the
USA, they have
been generously spending lakhs of rupees every year on construction
of village roads, public urinals and marriages of poor girls,
besides giving donations for religious causes. They are frequent
visitors here and no one can even imagine them as narcotic
smugglers,” said Amarjit Singh, former sarpanch of Cheemna village.
Sukhraj, son of
a ‘granthi’, migrated to the USA about 12 years ago, while his
friend Harjit left Punjab in the early 1990s and became the owner of
a fleet of 24x7 Truck Wash. Later, the trio joined hands to operate
their transport business and started smuggling drugs between
USA and Canada
by ‘concealing’ them in vehicles, police officials said.
Local residents
said whenever Sukhraj visited his village he preferred to keep a low
profile and didn’t attend public functions, except sports
tournaments, for which he used to donate money Surinder Singh .
Darshi, another resident, said during a recent sports tournament,
Sukhraj and Harjit refused to sit on the stage and watched the event
from the public gallery. Recalling several instances wherein the duo
had provided money for marriages of poor couples and paid school
fees of needy children, villagers said most of their philanthropic
work was done ‘anonymously’.
The Jagraon
police said the trio had a clean record.
2
July, 2008
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