Delhi police invokes rarely used law to keep drug kingpin in jail

Sharafat Sheikh has been in jail since July last year, when he was arrested by the crime branch team in connection with the recovery of three kilograms of heroin, trafficked allegedly on his behest into Delhi from Mandsaur in Madhya Pradesh.

In a first, Delhi Police on Sunday said they invoked provisions of the Prevention of Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (PITNDPS) Act against alleged drug lord Sharafat Sheikh and secured permission to keep him in preventive detention for one year.

Sharafat Sheikh was previously involved in over 36 cases, including five related to drug dealing (Photo Credit: Delhi Police)

Sheikh (53) has been in jail since July last year, when he was arrested by the crime branch team in connection with the recovery of three kilograms of heroin, trafficked allegedly on his behest into Delhi from Mandsaur in Madhya Pradesh.

He was previously involved in over 36 cases, including five related to drug dealing, and was also booked under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) and the National Security Act (NSA). Senior police privy to the developments said they chose to invoke provisions under PITNDPS Act as they feared he might be successful in securing bail.

“Since Sheikh’s drug trafficking activities, which he had been running clandestinely for more than three decades, needed to be curbed, we used the provisions of the PITNDPS Act, which provides for preventive detention for one year. This is the first case in Delhi wherein PITNDPS Act has been invoked against a notorious drug dealer,” said deputy commissioner of police (crime) Chinmoy Biswal.

DCP Biswal said that the narcotics cell of crime branch had recently prepared a proposal and presentation for invoking PITNDPS Act against Sheikh and sent it to the PITNDPS division of the department of revenue of the finance ministry. Police said similar proposals were sent for five other habitual drug peddlers from different states. The PITNDPS division accepted the Delhi Police’s proposal and sent it to the screening committee headed by the director general (DG) of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB).

“Keeping in view Sheikh’s active involvement in drug trafficking cases, the screening committee issued his detention order under the PITNDPS Act on April 4. The matter was further referred to the central advisory board, which consists of the incumbent chief justice of the Delhi high court and its two serving judges, for the final decision,” said Biswal.

A hearing by the central advisory board on the detention order took place on June 1 and Sheikh’s counsel opposed the order by saying that his client was already in jail and there was no need to invoke the PITNDPS Act against him. However, on June 15, it ratified the detention order and the competent authorities were accordingly informed about it, said the DCP.

Sheikh, who studied till Class 5, came from UP to Delhi in 1977, worked in a dhaba in Ghaziabad for six months and then at a shop at Meena Bazar near Jama Masjid for some years.

He was arrested in an assault case in 1986 and while in jail, he met a drug peddler called Inayat.

After his release, he allegedly involved himself in drug trafficking, police said. “Sheikh began his foray into the trade of narcotic drugs as a peddler but soon he rose to become one of the top suppliers of heroin in Delhi-NCR. His family is also indulged in the same trade and many cases have been registered against them as well. Of the five drug peddling cases, Sheikh was convicted in one registered in 2007,” added DCP Biswa