After high court rap to Captain, govt seeks details of prosecution reports in drug cases

AG ATUL NANDA HAS WRITTEN A LETTER TO DIRECTOR, DEPT OF PROSECUTION AND LITIGATION, ASKING HIM TO GET A REPORT FROM DISTRICTS

: Taking a serious view of the concerns expressed by the Punjab and Haryana high court over the manner in which final reports are being filed by the prosecution in drug-related offences, Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Thursday directed the advocate general to pursue the matter in right earnestness.

Acting on the chief minister’s directives, AG Atul Nanda has written a demi-official letter to director, department of prosecution and litigation, asking him to call for a report from various districts and ascertain the factual position on ground in this regard. The AG has also sought the comments and suggestions of the director, Vijay Singla, on the issue “so that the matter may be taken forward at the earliest, preferably within two weeks.”

The letter is marked to the chief secretary Karan Avtar Singh and additional chief secretary, home, NS Kalsi, apart from director general of police Suresh Arora and additional director general of police, special task force, drugs, Harpreet Singh Sidhu.

The letter refers to Wednesday’s incident when Amarinder was attending a hearing on election petition before the high court and he was called upon by Justice Daya Chaudhary “to look into the manner in which final reports are being filed by the prosecution in drug-related offences, more particularly without attaching the laboratory reports supporting the charges made against the accused”.

The court was of the view that such reports are often not attached to/form part of the final report which is filed before it.

The CM asked the AG to look into the matter and ensure that the system is streamlined to ensure that there are no such loopholes in the prosecution’s case before the court, particularly in drug-related matters.