Private courier van seized in DRI raid, and officials outside CSJS property
Amritsar Sahib (KP) - India’s Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) raided the various properties of the controversial publishing firm, Chattar Singh Jiwan Singh (CSJS), after they confiscated around 6kg of heroin from a courier package that was being shipped to Canada along with religious books.
A courier van that was on its way to Delhi was intercepted Thursday night near Jalandhar after a tip off that narcotics were being shipped via this channel. After confiscating the van, the DRI discovered heroin had been concealed in small plastic packets inside religious VCDs, DVDs, and books. The total value of the seized drugs is valued at over 6 crore Indian rupees ($1.3 million).
The DRI, conducted raids at Chattar Singh Jiwan Singh book shops, publishing center, the CSJS Hotel, and other properties belonging to the publishing family.
| "The seized narcotics have a street price over $1.3 million, and were hidden in religious DVDs, and books." |
The agency had detained the owners’ sons Rabjeet (Robbie) Singh and Vicky Singh in connection to the narcotic shipments. Rabjeet Singh is said to be a close associate of Prithipal Singh Sandhu, who was the personal assistant of former Jathedar Joginder Singh Vedanti.
The CSJS brothers had also been working on a business project with a US based kathakar for distribution of katha on Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji to be released later on this year in connection to the 300th Gurta-Gaddi celebrations.
Upon hearing about the drug bust, SGPC President Avtar Makkar demanded that authorities allow SGPC staff to take possession of all Saroops of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji that were being stored at the publisher’s facilities.
Sikhs have long been filing complaints at Sri Akal Takhat seeking bans on privatized publishing of saroops of Guru Granth Sahib Ji, and despite the mandates of the Takhat, for years many publishers have continued with this blasphemous act.
The owners of Amritsar’s oldest publishing firm have previously been in hot water for improperly printing, transporting and handling saroops of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji, and were reprimanded by Sri Akal Takht Sahib for these violations.
Back in 1998 when Jathedar of Sri Akal Takhat Sahib, Singh Sahib Bhai Ranjit Singh Ji, issued a HukamNama giving only the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee and other approved publishers the right of publishing saroops of Guru Granth Sahib. Despite, the intervention by the Takht, the firm continued to print the holy Saroops without approval from the SGPC.