Fivedays after they busted a drone module with international linkages in Amritsar(Rural) district, the Punjab Police on Sunday seized 11 Arges-84 hand grenadesdropped on the night of 19th December by a drone launched from Pakistan, whichwas engaged and shot at jointly by police and Border Security Force (BSF)personnel close to the border in Gurdaspur district.
Theshocking seizures came even as a police team, investigating the December 14drone module case of Amritsar (Rural) district, arrested two Delhi-basedsuppliers/assemblers of drones, taking the total number of arrests in the caseto eight, including the four jailed smugglers who were found connected with thecase. Four drones, one partially constructed drone, video transmitter system,drone hardware and other crucial evidence has been recovered in the case, in whichinvestigations so far have revealed key linkages between Pakistan-basedentities who were actively involved in the latest drone module as well as theearlier two modules. Further technical analysis and investigation is beingconducted to unravel the nexus of the accused with Pakistan-based smugglers,including their links with militant outfits.
Revealingdetails of the shocking incident which took place on Saturday night, DGP DinkarGupta said the Punjab Police mounted a search operation immediately afterreceiving information from the BSF about drone movement across the Indo-Pakborder in Gurdaspur district. BSF personnel deployed at BOP Chakri in Gurdaspursector had noticed a Pak drone entering Indian territory around 11:30 pm, andBSF troops immediately fired multiple shots in an attempt to bring down thedrone.
Atthe same time, the BSF personnel alerted the Gurdaspur police about theincident, and SHO PS Dorangla immediately reached the area and deployed cops toengage the drone. On hearing the buzzing sound of the drone, the policepersonnel also fired multiple shots from AK47 and SLR Rifles to bring down thedrone, which soon disappeared.
Asearch and combing operation was mounted in the area on Sunday morning, leadingto the recovery of a plastic box containing 11 Arges-84 Hand grenades from nearDhussi Bandh, in the area of Salach village, PS Dorangla. The box of handgrenades had been attached with a wooden frame and lowered from the drone tothe ground with a nylon rope. Austrian in nature, the Arges Type HG 84 seriesanti-personnel fragmentation hand grenade, is a conventional hand grenadesystem designed to inflict massive damage against soft targets within its blastradius, spraying shrapnel out to a distance of 30 meters at speed, said theDGP, adding that the drone was however not recovered and it is suspected thatit managed to fly back into Pakistan territory after dropping the recoveredpayload.
Acase FIR no.159 dated 20/12/20 under sections 3, 4, 5 of the ExplosiveSubstances Act has been registered at PS Dorangla, district Gurdaspur, andfurther investigations are in progress, said Gupta.
Meanwhile,investigations into the December 14 drone module case have led to the arrest ofLucky Dhawan, s/o Tilak Raj Dhawan r/o BB 28D, Dairy Sabzi Mandi, Janakpuri,Delhi, from whom the prime arrested accused, Lakhbir Singh had bought thequadcopter drone along with the SkyDroid T10 2.4GHz 10CH FHSS Transmitter withmini receiver and camera support. A raid was conducted on Dhawan’s TRDEnterprises, BB – 28D, Janakpuri, New Delhi, by a police party led by ASP (UT)SHO PS Gharinda, Maninder Singh, on 19th December, disclosed the DGP.
Dhawan’squestioning revealed that he was involved in the procurement, sale, assemblyand repair of drones and drone components without any valid governmentauthorization or license. Four mobile phones, 13 rubber stamps and 2 filescontaining receipts were also recovered from the search of the premises.
LuckyDhawan further revealed that he had supplied the Quadcopter drone and theSkyDroid T10 system to Lakhbir Singh without any formal documentation orbilling, as required under government instructions. Lakhbir Singh had alsoprepared a forged Adhar Card in the name of a man named Arshdeep Singh tofraudulently procure the drone. The forged and fabricated Adhar Card have alsobeen electronically recovered from seized from the mobile phone of LuckyDhawan. He has been charged under sections 465, 467, 468, 471, 473, 420 IndianPenal Code.
LuckyDhawan further revealed that the drone supplied to Lakhbir Singh was assembledby one Baldev Singh s/o Harinder Singh r/o A – 62, 3rd Floor, Meharganj, Delhi.Subsequently, the police party of PS Gharinda raided the premises of BaldevSingh at Meharganj, from where he was arrested. Search of the workshop furtherled to the recovery of 4 drones and drone hardware – 1 450 Quadcopter drone, 1DJI Phantom drone, 2 DJI 249 Mavic Mini Drones, 1 video transmitter system, 1650 Quadcopter drone repair kit and 1 mobile phone, according to Dinkar Gupta.
BaldevSingh disclosed that he had procured the various drone components fromdifferent sources, including e–commerce sites such as Amazon and IndiaMart. Hehad then used his premises as a workshop to repair and assemble the drones, aswell as to purchase and then sell drones at differential prices to earnprofits. All such procurement and sale transactions were made without properbilling and transaction documentation, as is prescribed by the DGCA norms.Baldev Singh does not possess any valid government authorization to conduct thebusiness of purchase and sale of drones and drone components, as was the casewith Lucky Dhawan, the owner of TRD Enterprises, the DGP added.
Accordingto Gupta, apart from violations of the above mentioned DGCA regulations, BaldevSingh had also violated the provisions of technical requirements to bemaintained by the manufacturers as the drone was locally assembled. DGCAregulations mandate that the purchased drones are to be registered with theDGCA and a Unique Identification Number (UIN) is to be applied for andobtained. This was not done by Lakhbir Singh and Bachittar Singh. Hence, thedrone could not be monitored by any government agency.
Boththe accused, Lucky Dhawan and Baldev Singh, have been charged under sections10, 11, 12 Aircraft Act, Sections 336, 287 IPC in the FIR no. 202, PS Gharindaregistered on 14th December in the drone module case.
LakhbirSingh has also revealed that he was involved in the fraudulent purchase ofsecond hand vehicles from Bhikiwind, Tarn Taran, and used to tamper with theirchassis number and prepare forged documents to sell the tampered vehicles at aprofit. One white Scorpio with number HR35M 3709 and one black Scorpio withnumber PB10FX 5996 and one white Swift with number HR29AM 6672 have also beenrecovered following disclosures by Lakhbir Singh.
Further,four Ajnala based smugglers who were in contact with Lakhbir Singh from insideAmritsar Jail – Harjit Singh s/o Puran Singh r/o vill. Fattewal, PS Ajnala,Sarabjit Singh s/o Puran Singh r/o vill. Fattewal, PS Ajnala, Simranjit Singhs/o Salwinder Singh r/o vill. Sahowal, PS Ajnala and Surjit Masih s/o BalwinderSingh r/o vill. Gurala, PS Ajnala - have also been nominated and arrested inthe case. Four mobile phones have been recovered from their possession by theauthorities of Amritsar Jail, on the basis of intimation by the Amritsar(Rural) Police.
Furtherinvestigations have revealed the names of three key Pakistan based entities –Chishti, Malik and Maqsood, who were in contact with the arrested accused.Chishti was also in close contact with the accused arrested in the Akashdeepdrone module case busted by Punjab Police in September 2019. Further, Malik wasin contact with the accused Ajaypal Singh, arrested in the drone module bustedby Punjab Police in January 2020.
Therecovered documentation and files from the office of TRD Enterprises inJanakpuri, Delhi are being thoroughly examined to trace the supplies andpurchases of drones and drone hardware to Punjab and other states, and assessother possible violations of the DGCA regulations and the Aircraft Act, as wellas to identify other possible illegally procured drones in the border State.