Punjab: 39 held, 31 NDPS FIRs filed daily in last 3 years

CHANDIGARH: On an average 39 accused were arrested every day in cases registered under the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, in Punjab in the past three years. Punjab Police also registered an average 31 FIRs per day under the NDPS Act since March 16, 2017 in the state.
The state police records reveal that from March 16, 2017, after the Congress government took over the charge, a total number of 46,724 accused have been arrested in 37,526 FIRs till June 3 this year.During this almost 40 months period, the state police have made recovery of a total of over 1,426 kilogram of heroin, over 1,569 kilogram of opium, 1.27 lakh kilogram of poppy husk, over 375 kilogram of charas, over 6,153 kilogram of ganja and over 852 kilogram of bhang. Similarly, over 1.94 lakh injections, 2.79 crore pills and capsules, and 427 kilogram of intoxicant powder has also been seized.
There are 180 foreign nationals among those arrested in the last over three years in the NDPS cases. The state police have been able to achieve 68% conviction rate in NDPS cases. The STF police station in Mohali has recorded 100% conviction rate.
Anti-drug special task force chief ADGP Harpeet Singh Sidhu said, “We have come a long way since 2017. We are putting in more efforts to completely implement Comprehensive Action against Drug Abuse (CADA) and Enforcement-Deaddiction-Prevention(EDP) strategy.”
He added that 50% of the STF personnel were put on Covid-19 duty during the lockdown and once the force was back to full strength, the STF would pick up its operations more aggressively.