Batala (Gurdaspur), April 26
One has heard of politicians helping drug peddlers. But here is a politician who has decided to do away with the middlemen and peddle drugs herself. A lady councilor of the Batala Municipal Council here is allegedly selling banned drugs, injections and even smack from her residence.
Virtually everyone in Batala knows about the “business” she has been running for several years. The openness with which this lady operates through her husband and musclemen is shocking.
When The Tribune team visited the place feigning to look for smack many of the shop keepers on the main road directed the team to her house. At her house The Tribune team saw young addicts make a virtual beeline to the house where a young boy handed over blue capsules and small ampules to them. When the team asked for smack the boy offered to give capsules and injections.
A local resident later told TNS that the councilor’s husband also sits at the house to collect money. “The councilor behaves like a local don and the residents are scared of her. No one stands up to her. In the late eighties when Sumedh Singh Saini was SSP Batala he had taken action against her but since then no police
officer of the district has done anything to stem the open drug and liquor trade that goes on here,” he said.
The resident alleged that local cops are on the pay rolls of the woman because of which no action is ever taken against her. When contacted the SSP Batala Dr Naresh said he had never been given any information about the MC doing this work. “But now since you have called we will find out,” he said. However, in July 2007 a prominent citizen of Gurdaspur Romesh Mahajan had written a confidential letter to the IG Border range RP Meena giving specific information about the councilor and some others peddling drugs.
Mahajan runs the Red Cross Drug De-addiction centre in Gurdaspur and gathered information about those selling drugs from the inmates. One of the inmates told TNS: “The policemen never stop the MC as many of the cops in Batala are also using drugs. I have had drugs sitting with these cops.”
Several other inmates of the de-addiction centre, many of whom have been into the habit since their early teens, had similar stories to relate about other drug sellers in the same area in Batala.
Interestingly the president of the Batala municipal council is the daughter of the sitting BJP MLA Jagdish Sawhney. “I know that there is lot of illegal liquor trade in Batala but this information of an MC’s involvement is new. I will check,” he said. The deputy commissioner Gurdaspur Neelkanth Avhad said all efforts were on to nab drug sellers.
To be continued
