Harpreet Singh, who had won a silver medal in discus throw at the Commonwealth Youth Games in Australia in 2004, was among the three people arrested with the hallucinogenic Mephedrone drug at the New Delhi railway station, the police said on Friday. The police seized over 25 kg of the drug, commonly known as meow meow, which is worth Rs 50 crore from them.
Singh had also won a bronze for India at the Colombo SAF Games in 2006. But the Delhi-based athlete was forced to quit the sport when he suffered a foot injury while training for the Commonwealth Games 2010.
He had earlier tested positive for steroids during a national competition. According to the police, the 30-year-old athlete had ventured into real estate before getting involved in drug peddling. The other two arrested men, Amandeep Singh, 29, and Harnish Sarpal, 36, also belong to Delhi.
A special task force of the police had acted on a tip-off and laid a trap at all entry and exit points of the New Delhi railway station, Sanjeev Yadav, the DCP (special cell) of southwestern range, told the media. According to the information received by the police, Amandeep and his associates had boarded the Dadar Amritsar train to Delhi. They were nabbed when they started running when the policemen approached them.
The drug had been smuggled to Mumbai from Africa. From Delhi, the gang used to subsequently send it to the UAE, UK, USA, Malaysia and other middle-east countries, the police revealed. In August 2016, the police had seized 14 kg of 'meow-meow' worth Rs 25 crore.
