Punjab’s war on drugs is more a war on drug addicts - by VARINDER BHATIA, Navjeevan Gopal , Man Aman Singh Chhina
In May 2014, stung by
allegations of inaction over the rampant abuse and trafficking of drugs, the
Punjab government launched an aggressive crackdown with Deputy Chief Minister
and Home Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal declaring: “We will spare no one.” These words resonated
in police stations across the state with 17,068 arrests in 2014 and 11,593 more
until December 2015. But that’s just on the
surface.
Dig deeper and what
emerges is a story of a rush to rack up numbers. Punjab’s war on drugs has, in
effect, turned into a war on its addicts, the most vulnerable rung at the
bottom of the supply ladder. That’s one of the key
findings of an eight-month-long investigation by The Indian Express of 6,598 FIRs made
available last year under the Right to Information Act.
These FIRs were
registered under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substance (NDPS) Act from
January 1 to December 31, 2014 in 152 police stations that fall under 14 of the
28 police districts in Punjab. An analysis of the
numbers tells the story: At least 2,555 out of the 6,028 arrests — or 42.4 per
cent — were for possession of 5 gm or less of heroin, 100 gm or less of
intoxicant powder, 50 gm or less of opium, 1 kg or less of poppy husk and 100
or less capsules or tablets.
“Those who have been
arrested were merely small-time peddlers. No drug lord worth his name has been
put behind bars. The crackdown was absolutely flawed and done to make up the
numbers. It took place without any foresight and planning. Addiction is a
sickness like any other disease and there is no point in putting addicts behind
bars,” said Shashi Kant, former DGP (Prisons), who now runs an NGO, Nasha
Virodhi Manch, to help addicts.
Nothing illustrates
the cracks in the crackdown better than police records from Boot village in
Kapurthala, where 47 FIRs were filed under the NDPS Act. The Indian Express
visited Boot and investigated each of those FIRs, which together name 63
accused, to find that at least 28 — or nearly 60 per cent — were registered for
possession. Details from a selection of these FIRs illustrate who this
crackdown really targeted… read more:
as for justice in India...
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