Punjab Police’s fresh strategy to deal with drug smuggling is ‘same old wine in new bottle’

A similar cricket league was organised in Amritsar on a much larger scale last year and was kicked off by Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann. There was hardly any visible impact on the problem of drug addiction from this league in Amritsar.

AAP Amritsar candidate in the parliamentary elections and Punjab Cabinet Minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal had admitted during the poll campaign that his party’s government was yet to deliver on the promise of ending the drug menace in the state and had set a new deadline of December 31, 2024, to make it happen.

Punjab Police has been hyperactive on the issue of drug smuggling after the AAP lost 10 out of the 13 Lok Sabha seats in the recently held parliamentary elections.

CM Mann too minced no words while announcing 10,000 transfers in the state police recently. Mann had said that the transfers were made after he realised that there was a nexus between the drug peddlers and the police. Police, however, are looking more into external factors than searching within to deal with drug smuggling.

Punjab Police officers were seen raiding houses of small fries in remote areas across the state without any warrant. It is a controversial practice that the Punjab Police has been following since 2014 when the AAP won four seats in the parliamentary elections and then in the state on the poll plank of eradicating the drug menace from Punjab.

Punjab Police conducted a massive state-level cordon and search operation (CASO) named ‘EAGLE-IV’ on Friday, targeting identified drug hotspots across the state, according to an official statement. Over 500 police teams, comprising more than 4,000 personnel, cordoned off 392 drug hotspots, the points of sale of drugs and psychotropic substances, and arrested 254 people. Additionally, 352 checkpoints were established around these areas, the statement said.

In November 2022, police teams had conducted searches under CASO at 250 places across the state and apprehended 98 people, including three proclaimed offenders, involved in different crimes. A total of 97 FIRs were registered at the time.

In September 2023, Punjab Police under CASO raided as many as 206 places linked with persons with criminal backgrounds. Such operations again failed to make any visible impact on the drug problem in the state and election results too.

While former Punjab CM Captain Amarinder Singh, the current CM Mann and Director General of Police Gaurav Yadav were always equipped with the data on the number of arrests of drug smugglers and the number of drugs recovered and other related figures – these numbers have not changed the situation on the ground where drug deaths are continuing unabated.

Before forming the government in the state in 2022, the AAP had raised allegations against various politicians of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the Congress over giving shelter to drug smugglers. Even in the recently held parliamentary elections, CM Mann alleged that a top Congress leader was involved in the smuggling of gold from Pakistan. However, the AAP failed to substantiate such allegations against what its leaders used to call “the big fish”.
Now, Punjab Police has redefined the term “big fish” for those smugglers from whom more than 2 kg of heroin is recovered. No politician has been arrested under this new definition of “big fish”.

Meanwhile, 10 days after the Lok Sabha election results, police recovered intoxicating capsules and pills from a home-based store and warehouse. They arrested Bhim Thukral, the social media in-charge of the AAP for Makhu block in Ferozepur district, on June 13.

CM Mann had recently said that any police official involved in drug smuggling would be suspended immediately.
However, here also, Punjab Police’s position on serving DIG Inderbir Singh remains the same. He has had an NDPS case registered against him for the last two years and has still managed to serve in the police force to date. Police could neither clear him of the charges nor take any action for the serious allegations against him.

The state police had launched a statewide operation ‘OPS Clean’ in June 2023 during which as many as 650 police teams comprising over 5,500 police personnel raided 2,247 locations and conducted searches at 2,125 houses of the suspected people. Police teams seized 1.8 kg of heroin, 82 kg of poppy husk, 1 kg of opium, Rs5.35 lakh in cash, and four weapons, besides destroying illicit liquor.

Punjab AAP spokesperson and Anandpur Sahib MP Malwinder Singh Kang said, “It is a strategy of the police that they increase vigilance from time to time. We had feedback from border areas that some police officers were posted there for 10-15 years. Such postings have become a comfort zone for policemen and their officers, who were prone to develop a nexus with drug smugglers. There was a demand to replace such officers. It has happened for the first time.”

Kang, however, said he was unaware of the case against DIG Inderbir Singh.
“We are making efforts to identify good and honest officers to give them responsibility. They can motivate society and the youth. Action has also been taken against tainted officers. We have been asking the Centre to use modern technology to check drone use. Besides, Punjab Police has also identified BJP-ruled states like Gujarat and Maharashtra from where drugs are coming to Punjab,” he added.