Court notice to NCB, police, CBI

After it was reported in the media that the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) had come out with startling revelations about several Chandigarh Police personnel being involved in drug peddling, social activist Hemant Goswami filed a petition in the court last week.

The petition said the NCB had revealed that many top officers of the Chandigarh and Punjab Police had deep links and association with the drug cartel, and that illegal drug trade was being carried out in connivance with the police in the region.

Hearing the petition on Friday, the court issued notices to all the respondents for August 14, 2008.

Despite having all information and the power to register cases against the officers involved in the racket and to investigate further to bring all such officers to book, nothing had been done in this regard by any of the government agencies, the petition said.

The petitioner claimed that despite having the knowledge of such a serious issue, neither the NCB, nor the police agencies shared the information in a credible and lawful manner.

The applicant pleaded: “The Central Bureau of Investigation is the best agency to investigate the matter in coordination with other agencies so it should be directed to investigate all the possibilities of sinister designs and the nexus of drug mafia with any law enforcement agency and the criminals engaged in drug sales all over the region.”

Despite media reports about the nexus between drug-peddlers and Chandigarh and Punjab Police personnel, the NCB has not been able to catch them. NCB Director Saji Mohan had been extensively quoted in the media reports, saying he had already given names of the officers involved in the racket to UT Senior Superintendent of Police S S Srivastava. The SSP, however, completely denied having received such information.

This is what they have to say

* “I have never received any names from the NCB, neither verbally not in writing. Whenever I will get the communication from the NCB, I will certainly initiate a probe into the matter.”
— SS Srivastava, Chandigarh SSP