Drug trafficking: Punjab to tighten noose on over 100 ‘repeat offenders’
According to a senior Punjab Police functionary, after a marathon deliberation with district police across the state and intelligence-based analysis, a list of over 100 persons has been prepared to make a case for taking them into preventive custody under the PIT-NDPS Act
Punjab Police has prepared a list of 100 repeat drug traffickers who will be taken into preventive custody under the Prevention of Illicit Traffic in Narcotics Drugs Psychotropic Substances (PIT-NDPS), 1988 Act.
According to a senior Punjab Police functionary, after a marathon deliberation with district police across the state and intelligence-based analysis, a list of over 100 persons has been prepared to make a case for taking them into preventive custody under the PIT-NDPS Act.
The PIT-NDPS Act provides for preventive detention of repeat offenders. Section 3 of the Act empowers a government to detain people to prevent them from engaging in illicit traffic of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances.
Punjab is the only state in the country where such a large number of criminals involved in drug smuggling have been pin-pointed to be taken into preventive custody.
A senior police official said using the PIT-NDPS Act was an idea pushed by Punjab director general of police (DGP) Gaurav Yadav keeping in view the repeated involvement of smugglers even after the registration of cases against them under the NDPS Act.
“In April this year, we started the evaluation of smugglers who are out on bail or those who are involved in the smuggling of drugs. Our teams have worked to send the lengthy proposals for their preventive custody to the state home department. We are waiting for the nod to take further action,” said a senior Punjab Police functionary, who is part of the team working on these proposals.
Around 60 proposals have been submitted to the home department. Out of which 35 were submitted a couple of months back. The home department has sought clarifications in many cases, the police official quoted above said.
This list is in addition to the 75 names of notorious smugglers or persons linked with drug smuggling submitted by the Border Security Force (BSF).
As per police, acting on the BSF list, more than 35 persons have been taken into preventive custody using section 110 of CrPC (Code of Criminal Procedure) which also has provisions for bounding down repeat offenders as an immediate action.
This section is concerned with keeping habitual criminals under control when there is a possibility of repetition and permission in these cases is sought from the local SDMs.
Punjab Police claims since PIT-NDPS requires a strong legal framework to support the case with the home department, district police have been asked to work on their proposals for preventive custody.
The work to implement the PIT-NDPS got the nod of the Bhagwant Mann-led Punjab Government. On January 24 this year, the state government reconstituted the three-member board, which has the power to listen to grievances of those being taken into preventive custody.
The government has appointed Justice Shabihul Hasnain (retd) as the chairperson of the board with advocates Suveer Sheokand and Divanshu Jain as its members.
“We are waiting nod of the home department on the issue,” a senior police official added.
