Derby man arrested by Indian police in huge drugs probe

[sweetshera]

A CITY man has been arrested in India by police investigating an alleged multi-million-pound international drugs ring.

Kulwant Singh, of Sinfin, was held by police probing a distribution network looking to export almost 30kg of heroin.

Singh, 27, the son of a former secretary of a Sikh temple in Derby, is being held in the Punjab region of northern India.

Singh was arrested at his hotel in Delhi, only hours before he was due to fly back to the UK, media reports in India say.

His family in Derby yesterday did not want to comment.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: "We are aware of the arrest of a British national on March 19 and we are standing ready to give assistance if required."

Jaz Rai, Sikh community leader in Derby, confirmed the arrested man was Singh, who lives in Deep Dale Lane.

He said: "There have been a lot of reports in the Indian media about this, both on Punjabi television channels and online."

He said Singh was the son of a former secretary of the Sikh Gurdwara Temple, in Normanton.

Reports in India say Singh, who is a British national but who originally hails from Phagwara town in Punjab, was among three people arrested.

In its online edition the newspaper Saanj News, said: "Kulwant Singh was arrested from a hotel in Mahipalpur area of Delhi Tuesday, police said. It alleged he was planning to fly out of the country."

"His ticket has been seized", the site quoted a police spokesman as saying, adding the officer alleged Singh was "the organiser of the distribution network in Europe and Canada, where the drugs were sent".

The report alleged an Indian retired deputy superintendent of police was also arrested, as was a third man. Earlier, police held a Canadian truck driver and recovered 28kg of heroin, worth around £300,000, and 30kg of chemicals for the production of synthetic party drug methamphetamine, known as "Ice".

"The intelligence wing of Punjab Police is doing the requisite liaison with the British and Canadian police authorities, who have contacted us," the spokesman was quoted as saying.

Derbyshire Police said it had not been contacted over the arrest of Singh.

Read more: http://www.thisisderbyshire.co.uk/Derby-man-arrested-Indian-police-huge-drugs-probe/story-18554291-detail/story.html#ixzz2PiL8nrY4
Follow us: @DerbyshireNews on Twitter | thisisderbyshirenews on Facebook