Drive against drugs leads police to Punjab, R’sthan

Deepender Deswal

Tribune News Service

Hisar, July 28

A month-long special drive of the police on drug addicts and peddlers led to the arrest of 158 accused and registration of 106 cases in five districts of the Hisar range — Hisar, Sirsa, Fatehabad, Jind and Bhiwani.

The police have got trails of rackets involved in the smuggling of the contraband in Punjab, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.

But it has failed to crack down on drug cartels suspected to have made Hisar and Sirsa districts as their base for operating their illegal business spread to Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan.

The drive launched by Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on UN International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking on July 26 has brought out that of the 158 accused arrested, mostly were drug addicts.

The recovery of the contraband included 9.46 kg opium, 351 kg puppy husk, 2.71 kg charas, 4.2 kg ganja, 1.54 kg smack, 111 gram heroin, 237 gram sulfa, besides a haul of syrups and tablets.

Hisar Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Ashwin Shenvi said the recovery of 1 kg smack and another seizure of 300 gram smack with Rs 3 lakh were the achievements during the drive. “The police got leads during the investigation to track down suppliers and clients to neighbouring states.

“The police are still working on the leads and hopeful of a major breakthrough,” he said.

Earlier, the police drive had zeroed in on three universities in Hisar — Haryana Agricultural University, Lala Lajpat Rai University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences and the Guru Jambheshwar University of Science and Technology — as suspected hubs of drug addicts.

The university authorities denied the spread of menace among students while claiming that outsiders must have used secluded places on the campus to take drugs.