Punjab Police’s plan to go tough on drug traffickers hits home dept hurdle
The Punjab Police’s much-hyped plans to go tough on repeat drug traffickers seems to have hit a roadblock with the home department going slow on giving sanctions under the PIT-NDPS Act
The Punjab Police’s much-hyped plans to go tough on repeat drug traffickers seems to have hit a roadblock with the home department going slow on giving sanctions under the PIT-NDPS Act.
The Prevention of Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (PIT-NDPS) Act, 1988, provides for preventive detention of repeat offenders.
As per information, the Punjab Police have sent around 60 proposals to the home department for taking drug smugglers and their conduits into preventive custody, but so far, none have been cleared. Out of these around 30 were sent three months ago.
The Narcotics Bureau too had sent three such proposals, involving big drug lords, around six months ago, but the home department seems to have put it in cold storage.
Go ahead to use law given a year ago
The state government-led by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann had given a go-ahead to implement the PIT-NDPS on January 24 last year after a strong perusal of the case by the Punjab director general of police. While Section 3 of the Act empowers the government to detain people engaging in illicit trafficking of drugs and psychotropic substances, Section 9 provides for constitution of an advisory board for looking into grievances of those being taken into custody. In each case, where the advisory board reports that there is no sufficient cause for detention, the government is required to revoke the detention order and release the person concerned. In keeping with the provisions, the Punjab Police had earlier last year reconstituted a three-member advisory committee headed by Justice Shabihul Hasnain (retd) with advocates Suveer Sheokand and Divanshu Jain as its members.
Punjab Police prepared a list of 100 repeat offenders
A senior functionary of the Punjab Police revealed that after several rounds of deliberations with the district police and analysis based upon intelligence inputs, they had prepared a list of around 100 persons to make their case for preventive custody.
“In April last year, our teams had started the evaluation of smugglers who are out on bail or are secretly involved in the smuggling of drugs. We worked endless nights to prepare lengthy proposals for seeking preventive custody,” said the functionary.
Notably, the BSF has also sent a list of more than 75 smugglers/conduits to seek their preventive custody. This list is in addition to the one prepared by Punjab Police.
Why the delay?
When contacted, home secretary Gurkirat Kirpal Singh said, “The proposals are under consideration and being examined. Since the approval involves detention for long periods and thereby curtailing the freedom of a person, due diligence is required in each case submitted before a decision is taken.”
Another senior official of the department said the biggest fear in using this law is the apprehension of its misuse.
“All these things are being discussed,” said the officer.
A senior state police official revealed that there are apprehensions in the home department about giving sanctions for preventive custody due to fears of legal recursions.
According to information, the home department, around two months ago, had sought clarifications on a few cases which were submitted in the first list of 30 proposals -- all after giving legal strength to the cases.
This list is in addition to the 75 names of notorious smugglers or persons linked with drugs smuggling given by Border Security Force (BSF) to Punjab Police suggesting their preventive custody to curb cross border smuggling of drugs in the upcoming foggy season.
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PIT-NDPS Act
The Prevention of Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (PIT-NDPS) Act, 1988, provides for preventive detention of repeat offenders.
