Lodge FIRs in suspected drug-related deaths: STF

Jupinderjit Singh

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 16

With the state government and the police allegedly under-reporting the drug-related deaths, the Special Task Force (STF) against drugs has asked the police to acknowledge each suspected death through the registration of an FIR. It warned the cops against the tendency to label drug-related casualties as natural deaths.

The move comes after more than 50 deaths allegedly due to drug overdose were reported across the state in the last two months. There is no record of these deaths and even Health Minister Brahm Mohindra recently claimed that only two drug-related deaths had taken place.

In a five-page circular to all police commissioners and SSPs, the STF head, ADGP Harpreet Singh Sidhu, said evading the registration of an FIR might amount to abetting the escape of the culprits. The STF and the district police are separate wings of the state police. The STF has been blaming the district police for not doing enough against drugs at the local level.

The STF had recently given a presentation to the CM in which it claimed that the district police were not doing proper investigation and prosecution in NDPS cases due to which accused were getting an easy acquittal from the courts.

The STF has asked the police to register cases under Sections 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 299 (intention to cause death) and 308 (causing death due to poison) IPC, besides relevant sections of the NDPS Act.

Many deaths were not recorded as the victim families do not want to pursue the case or record it as drug deaths due to social stigma attached to it.

The STF said it was the duty of the police to register a case even if the family was unwilling. It said the police could know the chain of drug supply only if it investigated the matter thoroughly. “This was important to disrupt the supply and nab the culprits,” says the note.