Chandigarh, June 24
On May 22, 2003, when the Punjab IPS Officers Association organised a two-day seminar on “Challenges before the Punjab police”, the Chief Minister, Capt Amarinder Singh, had challenged the members of the association to name even one village which was free from drug abuse.
Expressing his concern over the drug menace, he referred to a study conducted in Ludhiana early that year which revealed that 67 per cent of the school and college-going boys and 52 per cent of the girls had tried drugs. He exhorted the state police to evolve a multi-pronged strategy to tackle the problem.
Responding to the Chief Minister’s concern, it was announced that a pilot project to check the menace would be initiated in the Patiala police division. But after two years, all, including the association, appear to have forgotten about it.
“There is nothing on paper,” remarked a senior police officer, now holding a key position in the Patiala division. “Unless we have a holistic approach, the chances of success in the fight against drugs are bleak,” he added.
Admission by politicians and the police that the drug menace is spreading in every nook and corner of Punjab notwithstanding, the seizure of narcotics has shown a remarkable drop over the years.
For example, nearly a quintal of heroin was seized in 1997, followed by 96 kg in 2000, only 9.802 kg in 2003 and just 5.380 kg in 2004.
Has the smuggling of heroin and other drugs from across the border declined?
Police officers, on condition of anonymity, admit that for the growing menace of drugs, if policemen are responsible to the extent of 75 per cent, the inadequacy of the system is also to blame, including long delays in the chemical analysis of samples and the lack of support from the public and even government employees (under the law, a suspect can seek the presence of a gazetted officer before seizure is made from him or her).
Is there a nexus among politicians, police officers and smugglers operating in the state and the rest of the region?
Yes, admit the investigating agencies.
On November 10, 1997, the Taran Tarn police got a tip-off that a big consignment of heroin was expected. Three days later, the police made its biggest-ever haul of heroin (83.6 kg). The next day, the then Director-General of Police went to Amritsar and praised the team led by the then Senior Superintendent of Police of Taran Tarn, Mr Iqbal Singh. As a “reward”, he was asked to proceed on leave on November 17. It was at the intervention of the DGP that Mr Iqbal Singh was then posted as the Kapurthala police chief.
He had also seized 36 kg of heroin from Sewa Singh and Lahore-based smuggler Abul Salum at Noormehal. He had yet another big haul of heroin and opium to his credit. In a joint operation with the Narcotics Control Bureau, he seized 55 kg of heroin and 22 kg of opium from Gurlal Singh, alias Lalli.
Intriguingly, in at least two of these major seizure cases in which accused persons have been convicted, Mr Iqbal
Singh and his team are yet to be given the reward money. The Union Government had announced that 10 per cent of the actual value of the contraband seized would be paid to the team effecting the seizure.
The reasons for his transfer from Taran Tarn within a week of the biggest-ever haul made in recent years were not given.
A similar thing happened in Haryana, too. Mr Shrikant Jadhav, who seized 20,000 kg of poppy husk “bhukki” in four months in Fatehabad and started an NGO — Prayaas — to educate rural youth against drug abuse was also shifted, presumably under political pressure.
His successor, Mr Hanif Quereshi, continued his good work but at the cost of a personal traumatic experience when his minor child was abducted by anti-social elements.
The main suspect in the abduction case was subsequently killed in a police encounter in Uttaranchal.
Other than political and bureaucratic pressures, it is the “respectability” tag which most of the major players in this highly remunerative trade have acquired over the years that is coming in the way of the fight against the menace.
Many of the top players in the trade, who are on the wanted list of the state police and other agencies, have close family links not only with politicians but also with bureaucrats and police officers.
The list of major proclaimed offenders under the NDPS Act is startling. Harpal Shah, Gurdeep Singh, Suba Singh, Punjab Singh, Major Singh, Kanwarjit Singh Sandhu, Pargat Singh, Gurnam Singh and Charanjit Singh are some of the names that figure on the proclaimed offenders’ list of the Punjab police. All of them, investigations reveal, are not well connected.
— To be continued
