Chandigarh: A special CBI court in Mohali held Arjuna Award-winning international wrestler-turned-smuggler Jagdish Singh Bhola guilty in a multi-crore drug scam on Wednesday.
Bhola was held guilty in three of the seven cases registered against him in 2013 and was acquitted in four.
“He was convicted in FIR no. 45, 56 and 69, while he was let free in FIR no. 42, 50, 92 and 69 (registered in Mandi Gobindgarh),” said his advocate Gopal Singh Nahal.
Besides Bhola, accused Davinder Happy, Basawa Singh, Gurjeet Gaba, Sukhjeet Singh, Rakesh, Sachin Sardana, Davinder Behl and Davinder Kant Sharma have also been held guilty.
Bhola was dismissed from his job as DSP, Punjab Police, after poppy husk was recovered from him in 2004. He was then arrested in 2013 for smuggling pseudoephedrine, a synthetic drug, from India to various parts of the world.
Investigations further revealed Bhola had amassed properties worth crores, despite being out of service for nearly a decade. This brought him under the scanner and resulted in the unearthing of the Rs 6,000-crore international synthetic drug smuggling racket.
Subsequently, many arrests were made and cases were registered under various sections of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, Indian Penal Code and Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) also probed the cases after the Foreign Exchange Management Act was invoked.
The case soon turned into a high-profile scam after names of many Punjab politicians had also cropped up, including former Shiromani Akali Dal minister Sarwan Singh Phillaur, his son Damanvir Phillaur and former chief parliamentary secretary Avinash Chander, who are also facing trial.
Jalandhar Congress MP Chaudhary Santokh Singh and former Punjab minister Bikram Singh Majithia have also appeared before the ED for interrogation.
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