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Trace truck owner, probe his role: SC
The Supreme Court donned the cap of an investigator on Tuesday to probe the nexus of drug traffickers with the owners of inter-State trucks that are used as “safe” conduits to ship heavy consignment of contraband across State borders.
The case of a truck seized in Rajasthan in August 1999 carrying 105 bags full of opium poppy husk served as an eye-opener after the court discovered that the investigation into the case had yielded a 10-year jail term to the cleaner of the truck, with the registered owner of the vehicle yet not traced.
Ordering a high-level probe into the case, the bench of Justices Swatanter Kumar and FM Ibrahim Kalifullah directed the Additional Director General of the State Kapil Garg, who was present in court, to identify the owner and probe his role in the incident. Granting two weeks time to prepare the report, the bench said, “We want to set this right. It happens everywhere in such cases where the owner never gets caught. Instead, the case is proceeded against the cleaner and driver who are remotely connected to the case.”
Dealing with the appeal filed by the cleaner Sikander through advocate Ajay Chaudhary, the bench noted that at no stage the police ever thought it fit to question the owner or probe how the contraband came to be packed in the truck. Though the police official present in the court dismissed these gaps in investigation as “lapses” and assured the court that this line of investigation would be pursued, the court was not willing to buy any excuse.
It said, “It appears to us there is an apparent and intentional attempt by the agency to protect the owner. We direct the Additional DGP to conduct a thorough inquiry and submit a report to this court in two weeks.”
Besides the cleaner whose conviction under the NDPS Act was upheld even by the Rajasthan High Court, the police had also named the driver, who was acquitted by the High Court. The truck which was seized with the contraband was registered in Madhya Pradesh and was coming from Kota when it was stopped by a police patrol team on NH-12 in the wee hours of August 18, 1999.
The Supreme Court donned the cap of an investigator on Tuesday to probe the nexus of drug traffickers with the owners of inter-State trucks that are used as “safe” conduits to ship heavy consignment of contraband across State borders.
The case of a truck seized in Rajasthan in August 1999 carrying 105 bags full of opium poppy husk served as an eye-opener after the court discovered that the investigation into the case had yielded a 10-year jail term to the cleaner of the truck, with the registered owner of the vehicle yet not traced.
Ordering a high-level probe into the case, the bench of Justices Swatanter Kumar and FM Ibrahim Kalifullah directed the Additional Director General of the State Kapil Garg, who was present in court, to identify the owner and probe his role in the incident. Granting two weeks time to prepare the report, the bench said, “We want to set this right. It happens everywhere in such cases where the owner never gets caught. Instead, the case is proceeded against the cleaner and driver who are remotely connected to the case.”
Dealing with the appeal filed by the cleaner Sikander through advocate Ajay Chaudhary, the bench noted that at no stage the police ever thought it fit to question the owner or probe how the contraband came to be packed in the truck. Though the police official present in the court dismissed these gaps in investigation as “lapses” and assured the court that this line of investigation would be pursued, the court was not willing to buy any excuse.
It said, “It appears to us there is an apparent and intentional attempt by the agency to protect the owner. We direct the Additional DGP to conduct a thorough inquiry and submit a report to this court in two weeks.”
Besides the cleaner whose conviction under the NDPS Act was upheld even by the Rajasthan High Court, the police had also named the driver, who was acquitted by the High Court. The truck which was seized with the contraband was registered in Madhya Pradesh and was coming from Kota when it was stopped by a police patrol team on NH-12 in the wee hours of August 18, 1999.
