A chaiwalla-turned-drug lord from Ludhiana who smuggled heroin in tomato sauce cans from Afghanistan would continue to cool his heels in Assam’s Dibrugarh Jail till his cases were decided in courts of law.As per the orders of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), Akshay Kumar Chhabra, resident of Nitesh Vihar, Ludhiana, is the kingpin of a transnational heroin syndicate whose network was busted by the NCB’s Chandigarh Zonal Unit two years ago.The NCB’s stand has come in the backdrop of the Punjab government invoking the newly enacted Transfer of Prisoners (Punjab Amendment) Act, 2025. The amendment received Presidential assent and was notified in the official gazette on April 21 this year. A new Section 3 (1-A) in the Transfer of Prisoners Act, 1950, enabling transfer of under-trial prisoners and detainees in the interest of state security, law and order, or public interest, subject to mutual consent of both states and approval of the concerned trial court.Sources said that despite being lodged in Punjab jails earlier, Chhabra kept running his drug network from behind bars.Three additional FIRs were registered against him during his earlier confinement. The STF had booked him for operating a drug racket from Ludhiana Central Jail itself, recovering a cellphone he was using to direct his men on the outside. The NCB memo states his continued detention in Dibrugarh is essential to ensure he is completely cut off from his criminal network and deprived of any access or influence that could facilitate his illicit activities.From a tea stall at Ludhiana’s grain market to properties worth over Rs 100 crore in just three years, Chhabra’s rise was as audacious as it was criminal. He sourced heroin from Afghanistan, smuggling it into India hidden in 612 cans of tomato sauce and 350 bottles of juice imported from Iran. He was first arrested at Jaipur International Airport in November 2022 while attempting to flee to Sharjah, UAE.A three-member advisory board under the Prevention of Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act had already ordered one-year detention of Chhabra and two of his associates, Jaspal Singh alias Goldy and Balwinder Singh alias Billa Havellian, in Dibrugarh Jail in connection with the 20,400-kg heroin smuggling racket spanning Punjab, Mundra port in Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir, and Afghanistan.Goldy, a carpenter who built ingenious concealed cavities inside cupboards and closets to hide drugs, is also lodged in Dibrugarh alongside his boss. Both remain there as the NCB works to permanently dismantle one of Punjab’s most dangerous drug networks.Sources said the NCB will seek necessary approvals from all concerned courts to allow Chhabra virtual hearings in his pending cases. He will appear before courts on screen.