8 yrs later, narcotics video case is back

Finance Ministry officials say the question of 8220;nexus8221; between the film-makers belonging to a voluntary organisation, the Delhi Nashabandhi Samiti and officials of the Central Bureau of Narcotics CBN which Bhattacharji now heads are to be investigated. An inquiry officer has been appointed by the Ministry.

Attached to the complaint was copy of the representation made by CBN8217;s sub-inspector, A K Ghoshal one of the accused in the case, in which he categorically blames Bhattacharji for the entire mess. Ghoshal has alleged that before the film was made, Bhattacharji as Additional Collector, Central Excise in Delhi, had accompanied him to the US Embassy and that it was Embassy officials who paid him for his travel and transportation.

Speaking to The Indian Express from Gwalior, Bhattacharji explained that the motive of making the film was only to prove that drugs were being manufactured in the heart of the poppy cultivation zone. 8220;The film was intended to shock people out of their cocoon and since I took over, some 40 illegal laboratories have been busted. But instead of looking at the evidential value of the film, the authorities clamped down on the film-makers. This is sheer harassment of innocent people.8221;

On the question of seeking permission for withdrawing the case, he said he was not sure that permission was needed and said he had now made out a detailed case and sent it to the Ministry.

What is not clear is how Bhattacharji, who was not involved in drug enforcement in 1992, and CBN8217;s inspector Ghoshal collaborated with the Samiti in producing the video. Dr Ashwinin Kumar, Secretary of the Samiti and also an accused, admits the project had the blessings of Bhattacharji and says they had been told officials of the International Narcotics Control Board and the CBN would be present during the filming. 8220;Eventually, only Ghoshal was present. After the film was edited we gave a copy to Mr Bhattacharji. How it got into the hands of the CBN, we don8217;t know,8221; he laments.

On the CBN8217;s records, a copy of the video was obtained from a 8220;source8221;, but it transpires that when CBN officials were told that actual opium and morphine was handled, the enterprising film producers were booked under the Narcotic and Psychotropic Substances NDPS Act. Among those named in the FIR were Ashwini Kumar, an activist with the Samiti, S L Manga, Ghoshal and four villagers who did the actual distilling all out on bail at present. Some 60 hearings have been held in the special court in Mandsaur, but no charges framed yet. Manga, who spent two weeks in the Mandsaur jail for the case, says the video vividly shows the stages of procurement and manufacture. He said the Samiti recently approached Minister of State for Finance, Dhaanjaya Kumar, to request expeditious withdrawal of the case. 8220;We got exclusive footage in Mandsaur and this was only possible because of the help we got from Bhattacharji and Ghoshal. We could never imagine the consequences we are now facing.8221;

Bhattacharji took over as Narcotics Commissioner in 1996 and soon reinstated Ghoshal who had been suspended for appearing on-camera in the video. In 1997, the CBN moved an application for withdrawal, which was rejected by the special judge, in a September 12, 1997 order which described the case as a 8220;serious8221; one.