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Over fourfold surge in cases filed over illicit traffic of drugs since 2020: Data
The increased use of the 1988 law is aimed at dismantling the organised drug smuggling networks, the people said, adding that Union home minister Amit Shah has been prodding the anti-narcotics units to apply it.
The number of cases registered under the Prevention of Illicit Traffic in Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (PITNDPS) Act — with provisions to detain habitual drug traffickers for a year and attach their properties — has gone up by over four times in the last few years, people familiar with the matter said, pointing to the extensive use of the stringent law by central agencies as well as state police forces.
The increased use of the 1988 law is aimed at dismantling the organised drug smuggling networks, the people said, adding that Union home minister Amit Shah has been prodding the anti-narcotics units to apply it.
According to the 2023-24 annual report of the Narcotics Control Bureau, released last month, while only 159 cases under the PITNDPS act were initiated by the NCB and various states in 2020, the tally rose to 340 in 2021, 707 in 2022 and 719 last year. This year, 182 cases have already been initiated in the first few months, the people said.
Under the law, a drug trafficker can be kept under preventive detention for a year.
“The objective is to target individuals such as (drugs smuggling) syndicates, financiers and their agents who organise things from behind the scenes,” an officer said, requesting anonymity. “Under the PITNDPS, once a preventive detention order is issued against a suspect, their illegally acquired properties or that of their relatives and associates can be seized, frozen and forfeited through a quasi-judicial process.”
The law, according to the officer, is not a substitute for prosecution, but an additional weapon to fight organised drug trafficking. “It is invoked to snap the nexus/network of crime. It is a very potent law, which has been extremely underutilised,” the officer added.
Detailing the process followed under the PITNDPS, a second officer said the sponsoring authorities such as police, NCB or Customs send a proposal for preventive detention to the detaining authority. Officers at the rank of joint secretary and above in the Union government and secretary rank in states are only allowed to issue such detention orders.
Home minister Shah, while chairing a high-level meeting of Narco-Coordination Centre (NCORD) in Delhi last month, asked all the states and central agencies to “increase the use of PITNDPS”. In the last two-three years, he has on several occasions maintained that police and agencies need to be ruthless against drug smuggling networks instead of focusing on users.
Referring to the trends in drugs smuggling in India, the NCB report highlights an increase in instances of trafficking through dark net involving crypto currencies, seizures from check-in baggage, body concealment and air cargo at airports, diversion of pharmaceutical drugs and influx of ATS from Myanmar and through courier parcels in India.
In the last 10 years, over 500,000 kg of drugs worth ₹22,000 crore have been seized across the country as compared to 52,000 kg worth ₹5,933 crore between 2004 and 2014.
