Amritsar, October 29: The Anti Narcotics Task Force (ANTF) of the Punjab Police has arrested former Assistant Inspector General (AIG) Rachhpal Singh for his alleged role in a fake heroin recovery case dating back to 2017, officials familiar with the development said.
Singh was taken into custody by the Jalandhar ANTF unit, and the police have obtained his remand from a local court. No official statement confirming the arrest has been issued so far.
The case began on August 3, 2017, when Balwinder Singh was detained by the Special Task Force (STF) from Civil Hospital Patti and later booked for drug trafficking. Investigators claimed to have recovered one kilogram of heroin from his possession, alleging that the substance was sourced from Pakistan.
However, the story began to unravel after Balwinder challenged the charges before the Punjab and Haryana High Court, calling for an independent inquiry.
Subsequent probes revealed major inconsistencies. Call detail records (CDRs) and CCTV footage contradicted the STF’s version of events, raising suspicion that the heroin was planted. In November 2019, the High Court ordered then DGP (Bureau of Investigation) Pramod Ban to investigate. His report, submitted in December 2020, highlighted serious discrepancies in the operation and evidence collection.
The High Court later handed over the investigation to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in January 2021, which confirmed that the seizure had been falsified. The CBI found that the heroin had actually been recovered from Gurjant Singh, alias Sonu, who was later released, while Balwinder Singh was falsely implicated using fabricated evidence.
Rachhpal Singh, then a senior officer in the STF, is alleged to have played a supervisory role in the 2017 operation. His arrest, sources said, follows fresh scrutiny of earlier findings and new evidence gathered by the ANTF.
The case has remained one of Punjab’s most controversial examples of alleged police misconduct, exposing serious flaws in anti-drug enforcement practices and accountability mechanisms within the force.
