Jaipur: A former National Security Guard (NSG) commando, who participated in the 26/11 anti-terror operations in Mumbai, has been arrested with 200 kg Ganja near Churu in Rajasthan.
It has now come to light that Bajrang Singh had used contacts that he made during his years in service to source Ganja from Odisha and Telangana. He has now been branded a Druglord.
This was confirmed by Vikas Kumar, IGP, Rajasthan Police, who also said that Singh – a resident of the Sikar district – had been under surveillance for at least two months in this case. He also had a past criminal record and carried a reward of Rs 25,000.
This was part of ‘Operation Gaanjaney,’ carried out by the state’s Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) and Anti-Narcotics Task Force (ANTF), Kumar said.
Singh left studies after Class 10 before joining the Border Security Force (BSF). During his service as a BSF constable, he served in Punjab, Assam, Rajasthan, Odisha, and West Bengal. During this time, he was posted along the country’s border and also participated in counter-Maoist operations.
As he was extremely fit, Singh volunteered for the NSG and was selected. Thereafter, he served as an elite Black Cat commando for seven years. During his NSG service, he took part in the 26/11 anti-terror operation in 2008.
It is not clear when he left service, but in 2921, his political ambitions became evident. He returned to his village in Rajasthan and became an active worker for a political party. He even fielded his wife in the village elections, but she lost.
During this period, he came in contact with people with criminal links. He came to know about the financial gains he could make from the Ganja business from one such associate.
“Using his knowledge about Odisha and experience from his BSF days, he tapped into his old contacts in Odisha and Telangana and befriended some people involved in such crimes. Within a year, he climbed the ladder of success and became a kingpin of the Ganja syndicate,” an official said.
“Singh did not deal in smaller consignments. He took up tasks that were fraught with huge risk, such as transporting quintals of Ganja across state borders. Several cases were filed against him over the years, including one in his home district, Sikar, after several quintals of the banned drug were recovered from him. In 2023, he was arrested near Hyderabad for smuggling two quintals of Ganja,” the official added.
The ATS and ANTF teams came to know of him while looking for links to the masterminds of the Ganja business. Singh, however, kept evading arrest, using fake mobile IDs and hiding in remote villages.
Finally, it was his cook who told the police everything. A trusted house help, the cook was not involved in Singh’s smuggling business. After this, the police shifted through his communication with his relatives and the technical intelligence gathering team found key clues pointing to Churu’s Ratangarh. Further investigation helped them locate Singh’s possible hideouts.
On Wednesday, the police spotted Singh riding a motorcycle. The police did not arrest him immediately, realising that such a move against a former commando could be dangerous. They followed him to his secret hideouts, and only after proper planning, they executed a surprise raid.
“This operation was a result of weeks of planning and intelligence sharing. The arrest of a hardened operative like Bajrang is a significant achievement in neutralising the terror-narcotics nexus in Rajasthan,” the IGP said.