Tripura HC
File photo of Tripura High Court

The High Court of Tripura has pulled up the Biplab Kumar Deb government while raising serious questions over the state government’s anti-addiction drive.

According to a tripurainfo.com report, the Tripura High Court has sought explanations from the State Government about seizure of contraband addictive, release on bail of suspected persons and the role of state police and the newly constituted board for monitoring on narcotics-related cases.

According to the report, the Chief Justice of Tripura High Court Sanjay Karol while hearing a bail petition moved by an advocate on behalf of a ‘ganja’ running-accused made his observations and directed the Director General of Police (DGP) A K Shukla to furnish all the details of narcotics related cases in his order passed on Thursday last.

The DGP has been directed to furnish his reply by January 29 next.

The Chief Justice in his observation wondered over what had happened to the more than 65 thousand ‘ganja’, more than 1.12 lakh bottles of contraband phenseydyl and three kgs of costly heroin seized by state police over the past ten months. 0

He also wondered how 453 accused out of total nabbed 660 persons could obtain bail in altogether 450 cases and where the seized ‘ganja’ was stored.

Apart from this the dysfunctional nature of the board constituted by the State Government with retired justice  Swapan Chandra Das as chairman and retired judges B K Kilikdar and Subir Saha as members also came in for some criticism.

The court observed that though the board was formed several months back, not a single meeting of it has so far been held and the board is yet to be provided with an office.

Naturally no case is referred to the board and it does not function normally, the court observed.

The High Court is expected to prepare a detailed order on this after receiving the DGP’s report by January 29.