A local court today discharged six persons, including NRI Anoop Singh Kahlon, in one of the cases relating to the high-profile drug haul here earlier this year.
Kahlon was given temporary relief by the court in one case relating to the haul, while the other one involving the catch of 26 kg heroin is still pending in court.
The Fatehgarh Sahib police in March this year had claimed to have busted a drug peddling nexus with the recovery of 26 kg heroin worth Rs 130 crore, and had arrested Kahlon and his aide Kulwinder Singh alias Rocky.
A case was registered against them at Fatehgarh Sahib police station on March 3.
On March 8, the Mandi Gobindgarh police had arrested NRI Manpreet Singh alias Manni Gill (35) and his relative Gabbar Singh (27) and claimed to have recovered 2 KG heroin, 20 KG chemical powder and hawala currency of Rs 1 crore.
A case under various sections of NDPS Act was registered against the two at Mandi Gobindgarh police station.
Manni was a citizen of Canada and had close links with Kahlon, police had claimed.
During investigation of this case, the police had claimed involvement of Kahlon and others.
The police had constituted a special investigation team (SIT) and several persons were arrested in both the cases relating to the drug haul.
The Mandi Gobindgarh police had presented a challan against 9 persons -- Manpreet, Gabbar, Sunil Katyal, Chander Parkash Yadav, Kahlon, Rockey, Paramjit Singh Gulati, Kulwant Singh and Narinder Kumar in a local court on May 18.
However, the SIT recently submitted before court that there was no recovery of contraband from Kahlon, Rocky, Paramjit, Kulwant and Goyal during investigation of this second case of March 8.
They also filed the application for discharge of these persons.
The court also discharged Katyal, an employee of the Ludhiana-based Pharma company, as his counsel D S Mangat pleaded that no contraband was recovered from his client also.
Manpreet, Gabbar and Yadav, however, were not discharged by the court and charge-sheets were served on them.
