- In September last year, a police team from Satnampura police station in Punjab’s Kapurthala district conducted a raid at Sagar Sandhu’s residence following a tip-off. They allegedly found him in possession of a rolled-up Rs 10 note, a lighter, and foil paper, and arrested him under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.
- On January 2 this year, the Amritsar police spotted a Chevrolet Beat parked near Esma Estate. According to the FIR, the patrolling party observed a man in the driver’s seat using a silver foil paper to inhale a substance, while another in the passenger seat lit something with a lighter. The police promptly arrested the two men, Kanwaljit Singh and Jung Bahadur, under the NDPS Act. Their recovery included a lighter, silver foil, and a Rs 10 note.
- On January 6, the Sultanwind police station in Amritsar registered an NDPS case against Sarabjit Singh for allegedly “smoking an intoxicant” behind bushes near Dera Baba Gulab Das. The evidence was burnt matchsticks, a matchbox, and silver paper.
These incidents are just a handful among several cases in which the police in Punjab have booked individuals for “smoking heroin” based solely on observation.
A close examination of 11,156 FIRs filed by the Punjab police under the NDPS Act between April 1, 2022 and February 28, 2023 – the period for which the state police presented a summary of their anti-drug efforts to the Assembly – reveals a significant number of arrests related to minor drug seizures, raising concerns that the focus is on end users or users-turned-peddlers rather than major drug trade operators.
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