PIL filed against Delhi HC order on NCB's powers

PIL filed against Delhi HC order on NCB's powers
ATIR KHAN

NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 17: Delhi High Court's order which said the Narcotics Control Bureau had no power to investigate the cases which it had booked over the years, without legal sanction, has been challenged in a PIL before the court. The petition has sought a stay on the order.

The elaborate 20-point PIL, filed by advocate D Hasija, says the order would have wide ramifications as undertrials will apply for bail. And once those accused of dealing in narcotics come out of the jails, the nexus between drug trafficking and arms smuggling would be strengthened, it says.

Most of the persons arrested in connection with drug trafficking by the NCB are hardened criminals and foreigners, including Afghans, Pakistanis, Nigerians and Sri Lankans.

NCB counsel Rajesh Manchanda says five bail applications have already been moved by undertrials. NCB officials say the Bureau is in the process of drafting the SLP that would be filed in the Supreme Court. ``We will have a very good case when we go to the Supreme Court,'' says NCB Deputy Director General A.P. Kala.

Thirty-six foreigners and 80 Indians, described as ``desperate international drug traffickers having links with narco-terrorists'' are undergoing trial in the courts in Delhi and are lodged in Tihar Jail.

The NCB officials are afraid that they might manage to secure their release. ``If this happens, these people will give a fillip to narco-terrorism,'' said a senior NCB official. The NCB, which was set up in 1986 as the apex co-ordinating agency under the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, has on an average 75 to 100 catches to its credit each year.

The conviction rate, officials say, ranges between 35 per cent and 40 per cent. In Delhi alone the NCB has recorded 36 cases involving people from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nigeria, West and South Africa, UK, Spain and France.

In one of the more sensational cases, a Nigerian woman, Sandra, was arrested along with three of her accomplices from Srinivaspuri. But the kingpin who is based in Nigeria is still at large, the officials say.

Also last year, Noor Haider Siddiqui, an Afghan, was arrested from Faridabad and seven kilograms of heroin seized from him. Investigations revealed that he was operating in the Netherlands before coming to India and that he supplied drugs to Italy. The arrest led to the arrest of four other men -- Abdul Ghani, Goom Singh, Mohammad Ghani and Rehmat Ullah -- in south Delhi.

Five gangs are active in Delhi alone. One of them is led by a Nigerian, three by Afghans and one by an Indian. Their release would mean that they will re-start their operations.

Officials say that it is easy to nab Indians, but when it comes to foreigners it becomes very difficult. ``Earlier there have been cases in which they have jumped bail and fled on forged passports,'' says an official, adding, ``even before they come out of the jail their forged passports are ready.''

``They go to Nepal and thereafter to their own countries. We then issue summons through the proper channel but they are untraceable,'' he adds.

NCB has nine zonal units, including Mumbai, Chennai, Calcutta and Chandigarh. There are two regional units in Imphal and Thiruvananthapuram.