509 cases filed under NDPS Act, 697 held in Hisar div

Haryana Police have registered 509 cases and arrested 697 accused under NDPS Act in Hisar division under a special drive against drug peddlers during the current year.

Besides, a large quantity of narcotics including 27 kg opium, 37 quintals of chura post, 5 kg charas and 13 kg heroin or smack have been recovered during this period.

This was informed by Haryana Additional Director General of Police, Crime, PK Agrawal who chaired an inter-state coordination meeting with senior police officers of Punjab, Rajasthan and Delhi on “Drug Menace – Challenges and Strategies” organized in Hisar on Thursday.

The meeting was convened with an objective to further strengthen the coordination aspect between all states following the regional conference of four Chief Ministers’ and other representatives of northern states recently on the drug menace.

Emphasising the need to completely curb the activities of drug peddlers, PK Agrawal said that Haryana Police is fully committed to effectively check the smuggling and sale of narcotics and to fully cooperate with the Police of neighbouring states to eradicate the drug menace in the society.

Haryana Police has already constituted a special task force (STF) at state level headed by an IGP rank officer with its headquarters at Gurugram for nabbing criminals involved in organized crime. STF, Haryana has done exceptionally good work by tracing lots of hardcore criminals and recovered a huge amount of narcotics and arms, he said.

Similarly, the performance during operation “Prabal Prahar” which is going on in Hisar range is also doing commendable job and many NDPS cases have been traced out, he added.      

During the meeting, strategies were planned to curb the drug menace in the northern region of the country. A strategy to share quick information among police officers of neighbouring districts was also made to nab the criminals.

Earlier, IGP Hisar Range Sanjay Kumar welcomed all the police officers present in the meeting. He said that Range police has also started a special campaign to free the division from drug mafia, and Police has done commendable work to break the network of drug smugglers through better coordination.

Haryana CID chief Anil Kumar Rao, Additional Commissioner of Police Delhi Ajit Kumar Singla, DIG STF Sateesh Balan, IGP/Patiala AS Rai, IGP/Bhatinda MS Farruki, IGP/Bikaner Dinesh MN, SSPs, Mansa, Sangrur, Bhatinda, Muktsar, Patiala (Punjab), SPs, Hanumangarh/Churu (Rajasthan), all SPs of Hisar Range, SP/Bhiwani, DSP, Kaithal and other police officers were present in the meeting.

Notably, the Chief Ministers of four northern states—Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Uttrakhand had on Monday decided to unanimously set up a common central secretariat in Panchkula for sharing data and information, which is vital for the joint action against drug menace.

It was also decided the Chief Ministers will now meet every six months to monitor the progress of the joint strategy against drugs, while officers will meet every three months. The conference had also envisaged inviting the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and representative of Jammu and Kashmir to evolve the anti-drug strategy.