Shivangi Prakash-
The Director-General of Police (Punjab) has been asked by the Punjab & Haryana High Court to make tangible efforts to prevent the expansion of drug supply and usage in the State.
It has also asked the DGP to ‘capture’ those who are operating bogus companies/fake medical stores without proper licences to engage in the illegal drug trade.
A bench led by Justice HS Madaan issued the order while granting anticipatory bail to Tarsem Singh, who was arrested for alleged NDPS Act violations.
Although the plea was granted owing to a lack of adequate evidence linking Singh to drug recovery, the Court ordered the DGP to conduct a comprehensive investigation into the case to bust the drug cartel.
According to the prosecution, Manpreet Singh was discovered in possession of contraband, and an FIR was filed against him. During the course of the investigation, Manpreet revealed that he gave tablets to M/s Channi Medicos, the proprietor of which was the petitioner-accused herein.
Following that, the petitioner sought anticipatory bail from the Special Court, but his request was dismissed. As a result, the High Court was summoned to hear the case.
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It was claimed that Manpreet Singh had not delivered any contraband to the petitioner, nor had any such seizure been made from the latter.
Advocate Gupta argued that the State stated in its written reply that, based on the information acquired from makers of the seized tablets, such tablets, together with other materials, had been supplied to various medical stores.
The State’s Additional Solicitor General, Rajinder Singh, admitted that the petitioner had joined the investigation. He stated that, although the petitioner’s business was inspected, no offensive material was discovered.
He also agreed that the investigating officer in this matter is facing departmental consequences for not conducting the investigation correctly and professionally.
As a result of the absence of evidence, the High Court granted pre-arrest release to the DGP with instructions to handle the drug misuse problem in the State.
According to the National Crime Records Bureau’s most recent data on crime in India, Punjab has 23490 liquor and narcotic drug-related occurrences, including offences against the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985. As a result, it registers a 78.5 per cent rate of cognizable crime.
