In an unprecedented move aimed at dismantling local drug networks, the Chandigarh Police are sending two of the city’s most notorious drug peddlers, including a 64-year-old woman named Bala, to Dibrugarh Central Jail in Assam.
Habitual offenders Bala, a resident of Sector 38-A, a hotbed of drug trafficking, and Deepak Mittal, alias Vicky, have been detained under the Prevention of Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (PITNDPS) Act.
Both have repeatedly returned to drug trafficking despite multiple arrests and convictions, according to police.
Police said the relocation was a strategic measure to break their local supply chains by lodging them far away from Chandigarh. The duo will be lodged in Assam for at least one year.
The detention proposal was submitted under the PITNDPS Act by Chandigarh Police and approved by the Union ministry of finance’s SAFEMA (Smugglers and Foreign Exchange Manipulators Act) unit.
SP Crime Jasbir Singh said they were detained on Tuesday evening after receiving the approval and will be sent to Dibrugarh jail on Wednesday.
A police official said the step was part of adopting a comprehensive approach of opening all fronts simultaneously in the fight against drug menace—financial investigation, seizure of property, preventive detention under PITNDPS, deciphering forward and backward linkages, and adopting top to bottom and bottom to top strategy in making the city drug-free.
{{/usCountry}}A police official said the step was part of adopting a comprehensive approach of opening all fronts simultaneously in the fight against drug menace—financial investigation, seizure of property, preventive detention under PITNDPS, deciphering forward and backward linkages, and adopting top to bottom and bottom to top strategy in making the city drug-free.
{{/usCountry}}Bala has 36 cases against her, including 10 under the NDPS Act and several for theft, rioting and culpable homicide. However, 47% of the cases registered against her have resulted in acquittals.
She has been active since 1992 and was convicted in 2015 in a drug case, but secured bail. Despite high-profile arrests, including the seizure of ₹5 lakh drug money and heroin from her home last year, she allegedly continues to sell drugs from inside her residence using children and neighbours as couriers.
Mittal, too, is a seasoned heroin smuggler, who has been convicted in two cases and undergone sentences, yet has shown no signs of reform.
He reportedly peddles heroin across Chandigarh, Panchkula and Mohali, and resumes operations each time he is released from jail.