A DAY after the recovery of 102 gm cocaine from the driver of a night club owner, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Kuldeep Singh Chahal wrote a letter to Deputy Commissioner Girish Dayalan on Friday to cancel the licences of all the night clubs in the district. Confirming the development, SSP Chahal said that after the recovery of the cocaine, they were wary of the drugs being sold in these clubs during night parties. He added that he wrote the letter and hopefully would get a positive response from the DC. At present, there are a total of eight clubs in the district. Six are at Zirakpur and one in Mohali. The licence of Walking Street night club in Phase 11 was permanently cancelled last month after the murder of a Punjab Police commando deputed in the security detail of Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh. In a related development, the anti-drug Special Task Force (STF) of Punjab Police too is keeping an eye on the discotheques in the district. The youngsters thronging the night clubs have become the clientele of the drug peddlers. The officials of the STF told Chandigarh Newsline that already two night clubs at Zirakpur were under their radar as they received information that drugs were being sold during the night parties. “Yes, there are some clubs. We are keeping an eye. The drugs are being sold for the last five to six months. Our teams are already working on it,” STF’s Assistant Inspector General (AIG) Harpreet Singh said. The AIG added that accused Upinder Kumar was arrested by the district police on Thursday and was in police custody but in case they needed to question him, they would bring him on production warrants. Asked if there were leads then why the night clubs are not checked, the AIG said that they keep an eye, but the district police was already working on it. He added that the night clubs were turning into places where supply of drugs was easily available. Meanwhile, accused Upinder Kumar was produced in a Derabassi court and remanded in five-day police custody. Upinder’s employer and owner of Hypnotics Night club Ashok Kumar alias Lambu was not arrested yet. The police also did not seal the night club yet. “We shall soon arrest the other accused, Lambu, and also recommend to the excise department to seal the club. The accused revealed that he was taking drugs from Delhi and the cocaine was being sold during parties. It exposes the drug nexus,” said a police officer privy to the case.
