Bajrang Singh was detained late on Wednesday night

NEW DELHI: Rajasthan Police have arrested a former National Security Guard (NSG) commando who took part in the 2008 Mumbai terror operation for allegedly running a large-scale cannabis smuggling network, news agency PTI reported. Bajrang Singh was detained late on Wednesday night in Ratangarh, Churu district, during a joint operation by the state’s Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) and Anti-Narcotics Task Force (ANTF).‘The Drug kingpin’He was allegedly the kingpin of a racket transporting cannabis from Telangana and Odisha into Rajasthan. Officers said 200kg of the drug was recovered from him. Inspector General of Police (IGP) Vikas Kumar said Singh, who was from Sikar district, carried a bounty of Rs 25,000.“The state’s ATS and ANTF successfully carried out ‘Operation Gaanjaney’, resulting in Singh’s arrest,” Kumar told reporters.

‘Spent 7 years as an NSG commando‘

Police said Singh had left school after Class 10 and joined the Border Security Force (BSF), where he served briefly before being discharged. He later spent seven years as an NSG commando and was part of the 26/11 anti-terror operation in Mumbai. In 2021, his political ambitions surfaced when he attempted to push his wife into contesting local elections. Though unsuccessful, the move boosted his visibility in the area and widened his local influence, police said.

Links to crime and narcotics

Officials added that Singh used these connections to establish links with criminal networks in both Odisha and Rajasthan, allegedly trying to leverage his standing in the village to further narcotics and terror-linked activities. According to police, Singh had been evading arrest for nearly two months by using fake mobile identities and taking shelter in remote villages. However, investigators combined technical intelligence with ground-level inputs to track him down. “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,” IGP Kumar said.