Bihar forms task force to check growing narcotics
Bihar Police has reconstituted the Anti-Narcotics Task Force to crackdown on narcotics smuggling. The task force will be headed by the Additional Director General of the Economic Offence Unit and will comprise an SP-rank officer, two DSPs, five inspectors, and others. It will carry out raids, investigations, confiscate property, monitor court cases, and create awareness against drugs. The move comes after large-scale seizures in the state and growing youth substance abuse. Bihar police seized 1.16 lakh kg ganja, 1,597 kg charas, 60 kg heroin, and 300 kg afim till April 2023.
PATNA: In a bid to crackdown on narcotics, the Bihar Police on Monday reconstituted the Anti-Narcotics Task Force (ANTF) under the Economic Offence Unit (EOU) following directions from the ministry of home affairs (MHA) earlier this year, said officials familiar with the development.
According to officials, the ANTF will be headed by the Additional Director General (ADG), EOU, and will comprise an SP-rank officer, two DSPs, five inspectors, and others. There will be a special force to discharge the duties of ANTF and assistance from the district police will also be taken.
ANTF will work as the secretariat of the National Narcotics Coordination Portal (NCORD) and its in-charge will be the nodal officer for coordination with the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB). The ANTF will monitor the activities of those associated with the smuggling of narcotics substances and carry out raids. It will carry out investigations, confiscate property amassed through smuggling, monitor court cases, and take initiatives for creating awareness against drugs, officials said.
The move is significant as large-scale seizures have been made in the state in the recent past and there are growing instances of youth falling into the trap of substance abuse.
“Ganja, charas among others are grown, and prepared in some hilly areas in India, Myanmar, and Nepal and are illegally traded through the northern/north-eastern frontier and find their way into various states. Smuggling in India Report (2019 2020), published by DRI highlighted distinct recent trends of the flow of huge quantities of a coming from Odisha and Andhra Pradesh, passing through Telangana, Chhattisgarh, and Madhya Pradesh before reaching the consumption centres in north Indian states, mainly Uttar Pradesh and Bihar,” said a senior custom official.
He said that Patna Customs Commissionerate, DRI, Patna, intelligence, and other preventive agencies are striving to stop such illegal trade by keeping a constant vigil on the matters relating to violation of the Customs Act and Allied Acts (including NDPS).
ADG (headquarters) Jitendra Singh Gangwar said that to crack down on the sale of psychotropic substances and expedite cases registered under the NDPS, an ANTF was set up by the Bihar Police on the pattern of anti-liquor task force (ALTF).
Gangwar also informed that 1.16 lakh kg ganja, 1,597 kg charas, 60 kg heroin, and 300 kg afim have been seized in the state till April 2023.
The Bihar Police in 2018, the police lodged 360 FIRs against 598 persons and arrested 441 of them while 621 FIRs registered against 1137 people in 2019 and arrested 490 accused.
In 2020, the police lodged 701 FIRs against 1381 people and arrested 1106 of them. The data showed that 973 FIRs registered against 1870 accused in which 1410 were arrested in 2021 while 1290 FIRs against 2197 people in which 2031 were arrested in 2022.
The ADG further stated that till April 2023, the Bihar police registered 150 FIRs against 239 people and nabbed 237 of them.
