SOG to review NDPS cases in which closure report was filed
JAIPUR: The special operations group (SOG) will do a review of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substance (NDPS) cases registered in last four years in which closure report was filed by the Chittorgarh police, officials said.
Cultivation of opium is done in three states -- Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. In Rajasthan, Central Bureau of Narcotics has given permission to only two districts Chittorgarh and Pratapgarh.
A senior police official of police headquarters said that when PHQ analysed the data it was found that there were 35 out of 50 cases in which Chittorgarh police had seized vehicles loaded with lanced poppy husk, opium and other restricted drugs but had filed closure report citing the accused was absconding.
“The headquarters has been constantly receiving complaints that there is a network of local, smugglers and some opium cultivators because of which drug mafia is thriving across state. In September, the anti-corruption bureau (ACB) had also exposed how local police made money from opium cultivators,” the officer said.
Director general of police (DGP) Bhupendra Singh said that it is necessary to break the chain of smugglers. “The SOG would investigate the cases in which drugs were recovered but still closure report was filed. Drug smuggling is an organised crime and that’s why we have asked the SOG to review the cases and break the chain,” he said.
In September, the then station house of officer of Begun police Virendra Singh was arrested on charges of bribing a Congress legislator Rajendra Singh Bidhuri. The MLA had informed the ACB that Singh was trying to bribe him of Rs 15 lakh from the money he made in narcotics related cases.
Begun is a small town in Chittorgarh district where opium is grown.
“In the tenure of SHO Singh, which was of eight months, as many as eight NDPS cases were registered at Begun police station. Interestingly, in all the cases lanced-poppy husk was seized but in all the cases the accused managed to escape which puts Singh’s role under suspicion. In all the actions, he was present there. In order to chase the accused, Singh used a private vehicle,” said another senior official of PHQ.
“Singh took more than one crore rupees to release eight trucks laden with lanced poppy husk (LPH), commonly called doda post. It indicates the amount of corruption thriving in the district and the people involved in smuggling of drugs that’s why its is necessary to expose the entire chain as Chittorgarh alone produces 30% of the total opium in India,” the officer added.
It is worth mentioning that on January 26, IRS officer Sahirram Meena, the then deputy commissioner of Central Bureau of Narcotics (CBN) in Kota was arrested by the ACB. Meena, during his two-and-a-half-year long tenure in Kota, took money from opium growers in the name of transfer of licences.