The Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) has detained at least eight alleged key drug dealers from Punjab and West Bengal under the stringent PITNDPS Act and transported them to prisons in Assam and Jharkhand over the last eight months to break their network as part of a major crackdown, officials aware of the matter have said.
Officials added that the agency is working on similar proposals in different states to detain habitual drug traffickers in prisons across Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Andaman and Nicobar Islands, among other states.
Under the provision of the Prevention of Illicit Traffic in Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (PITNDPS) Act 1988, habitual drug traffickers can be detained initially for at least a year. The government can even attach the properties of the detained person and their accomplices.
The most recent case of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) using the stringent law was in the case of Punjab drug trafficker Jagdeep Singh aka Jaggu Bhagwanpuria, who was shifted from Punjab’s Bathinda to Central Jail, Silchar (Assam) on March 23. Bhagwanpuria, a man with at least 128 criminal cases, including 12 related to drugs, is also an accused in the murder of Congress leader and singer Sidhu Moosewala.
“So far, the people detained and taken to other states are from Punjab and West Bengal. In coming weeks, people from other parts of the country... will be moved out to jails in different parts of the country. This is being done to break their network. There have been cases, when drug traffickers are continuing to use the benefit of being lodged in the jail of their hometown. But when they are shifted to a jail outside their hometown, it will be difficult for them as there will be a language barrier, difficulty for their accomplices in travelling and loss of local support,” said an officer, who asked not to be named.
{{/usCountry}}“So far, the people detained and taken to other states are from Punjab and West Bengal. In coming weeks, people from other parts of the country... will be moved out to jails in different parts of the country. This is being done to break their network. There have been cases, when drug traffickers are continuing to use the benefit of being lodged in the jail of their hometown. But when they are shifted to a jail outside their hometown, it will be difficult for them as there will be a language barrier, difficulty for their accomplices in travelling and loss of local support,” said an officer, who asked not to be named.
{{/usCountry}}Earlier this year, while chairing a regional conference on Drug Trafficking and National Security in the Capital, Union home minister Amit Shah had flagged the underutilisation of PITNDPS Act. Shah had then said that Punjab police used it once while Delhi police used it 13 times. To be sure, in these cases ,the alleged drug traffickers were detained in jails within the state.