States hand over 25 'big' drugs cases to NCB for comprehensive probe
India Today
Various state governments have turned over 25 'big' drug cases to the NCB to conduct a comprehensive investigation.
The NCB has been handed over 25 "big" drugs cases by various state governments so that a "comprehensive" investigation against the cartels can be conducted and the entire network can be unearthed, officials said on Thursday.
The federal anti-narcotics agency has deputed a dedicated group of officers to supervise investigation in these cases, having inter-state or international links, apprehend the accused, file charge sheets and secure conviction, they said.
States like Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi and a few others, have "identified big drugs cases and handed them over to the Narcotics Control Bureau" even as an equal number of such cases are in the pipeline and discussions between the agency authorities and few other state governments are on.
The move to hand over large unsolved drugs cases to the central agency finds its origin in a letter written to top state government authorities by NCB director general (DG) Satya Narayan Pradhan in November last year, stating that states should consider sending cases, having inter-state or international ramifications, to it in order to take the investigation to a logical conclusion.
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The letter was written after Union Home Minister Amit Shah had reviewed the national drug scenario at a high-level meeting a little earlier, and stressed that there was a "need for central and state narcotics crimes investigation agencies to work in very close partnership and coordination."
DG Pradhan told PTI that as a follow up to his communication, the agency has been handed over 25 such cases till now by the states, and the agency has begun working on them.
