Political patronage behind flourishing drug racket: HC

Saurabh Malik

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Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 7

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has asserted that political patronage provided to drug peddlers in some cases was one of the reasons behind the flourishing drug racket. As a result of the political benefaction, the police turned a blind eye to their activities.

In its detailed order, the Bench observed several factors were responsible for the flourishing drug racket. “In some cases, political patronage is provided to drug peddlers. Due to which, the police turn a blind eye to their activities”.

Justice HS Madaan added on occasions when such peddlers got involved in cases under the Act, they manage to escape arrest and punishment by exercising influence with the investigation and law enforcement agencies, making use of lacunae in the enforcement of law.

Justice Madaan further added such type of drug peddlers were careful enough not to carry contraband. They, rather, used poor persons for transportation and delivery of drugs to the consumers. Most of them were drug addicts.

When a carrier was caught and took the supplier’s name before the police, he managed to escape by getting best legal assistance and taking advantage of loopholes in the system, putting up a straight face, denying his involvement in drug peddling and coming up with a plea that the statement of co-accused was inadmissible in evidence against him.

Such type of pleas was accepted many a times. Resultantly, it became next to impossible to trace the hierarchy in the drug racket. Except for small-time carriers, persons actively involved in the drug racket, the suppliers and the controller at the top did not even get identified or detected.

The Bench asserted: “When on a few occasions, the investigating agency tries to make little progress in the investigation by going a step further towards the culprits after interrogation of the carrier, proceedings in most of the cases come to a halt there since such persons do not join custodial interrogation and manage to evade arrest.”

Justice Madaan added they simply denied their involvement in the racket, when they joined investigation couched in comparative safety of pre-arrest bail. The investigating agency, as such, cannot do much in the matter.

The custodial interrogation was definitely elicitation-oriented. The investigating agency, getting little opportunity to have custodial interrogation of the supplier and other persons connected with drug trafficking, could not reach the big fish running the drug racket.