Honorable High Court Appreciates Odisha Police’s Efforts in Disposal/ Destruction of Seized Narcotics Drugs
Bureau,Odishabarta
Bhubaneswar/Cuttack:In the recent years during the massive campaign against the narcotics especially Ganja (also known as Cannabis/ Marijuana/ weeds) and Brown sugar (also known as Heroin/ smack) by Odisha police, there was huge piling up of seized narcotic drugs. As the trial of narcotics cases takes time, these seized drugs remain stocked at police stations/ court Malkhanas exposed to all kind of vulnerabilities.
The piling up of seized drugs has been a cause of concern and honorable Supreme Court in the case of Union of India Vrs. Mohanlal & others passed a detailed order on disposal/ destruction of seized drugs especially emphasizing on pre trial disposal of seized drugs. However because of some procedural and technical ambiguity/ issues, seized drugs could not be disposed of. In this backdrop, STF approached the Hon’ble High Court of Odisha with a prayer for certain direction/ order to resolve the issues/ hindrances involved in disposing of the seized drugs.Finally on 31.01.2022, Hon’ble High Court of Odisha pleased to pass a land mark judgment directing the Sub-ordinate courts to dispose the applications filed U/s. Sec.52A of NDPS Act, 1985 issuing a detailed SOP in this regard.
Accordingly, STF as well as concerned district police moved prayer to the respective courts for Pre-trial disposal of drugs. In this process huge quantity of narcotic drugs i.e. more than 658 Quintals Ganja and 27 Kg Brown Sugar were disposed of observing all legal formalities and pollution control guidelines. Till date in 2095 cases of Ganja and 659 cases Brown Sugar, prayer is under process for certification. All these have been achieved within a short period of time.
We are happy to inform that this achievement has recently been appreciated by Hon’ble High Court of Odisha on record.
