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Big fish use loopholes to escape law, admits Bihar judge
District judge says it is only the small fries who get caught in smuggling contraband, while big sharks get away most of the time due to loopholes in the law.
District and sessions judge of Muzaffarpur brought forth the limitations of law in bringing to book the real kingpin who were into smuggling contraband, when he said it were only the small fries who got caught .
“The big sharks get away all the time due to loopholes in the law,” said district and sessions judge, Muzaffarpur, Harendra Nath Tiwari while addressing a gathering at a legal awareness programme on drug trafficking, organised by the district legal service authority on Saturday.
“Security personnel and anti-drug enforcing authorities fail to arrest the kingpin of drug racket. Only small peddlers are caught. These peddlers never disclose the name of their patrons. So, we fail to sentence kingpins. These petty peddlers get short-term punishment and once they are out of prison, they resume their activities,” he said.
The district judge said the small-time peddlers were paid well and their families taken care of even during the period of their incarceration. “Kingpins of such rackets take care of financial needs of small-time peddlers and their families, when they are caught and put behind bars. So, these peddlers never disclose the name of the kingpin,” said Tiwari.
“The judiciary does its job honestly, but taking advantage of loopholes in the law, the kingpins get away.”
Tiwari urged commoners to come forward and help curb the social menace. “This social evil can only be eradicated when commoners play their role positively in identifying drug addicts and peddlers. Even investigating officials should do their job honestly in catching kingpins and not be consumed by their effort to nab the small fries,” he said.
Additional district judge Ved Prakash Singh, officials from the anti-narcotics department and many from the bar were also present on the occasion.
