High Court Questions Police Inaction & Impleads CBI In Case Over 'Apparent' Drug Trafficking From Amritsar's Central Jail Involving Prison Officials

The Punjab & Haryana High Court on Thursday, impleaded the CBI in a case of "apparent" drug trafficking from Amritsar's Central Jail, involving jail officials.

While impleading CBI as a respondent and issuing notice, Justice NS Shekhawat observed that, "when the police has not even bothered to investigate against the jail officials and has not looked into their involvement in the smuggling, it would be impossible for the ADGP (Prisons) to even take departmental action against them. Thus, it is apparent that every effort has been made to shield the erring jail officials, who were  involved in the crime with the principal accused. Apart from that, no efforts were made to collect the evidence against the other accused also."

These observations came in a bail plea wherein the accused was booked for drug trafficking under Sections 21, 27-A, 29 of the NDPS Act and 25 of the Arms Act.

In the previous order, the Court noted that as per the prosecution, the petitioner had connections with Pakistani nationals and he was also in touch with other accused from Amritsar Central Jail.

The Court had sought a status report from the SSP Gurdaspur to explain the reason for not arraying the jail officials as co-accused since the accused "admittedly" was making calls from jails itself and indulging in drug trafficking.

In the status report filed by the SSP, it was submitted that the Investigating Agency made sincere efforts to trace the call details of the said numbers, however, the numbers used were international numbers and were not traceable, and even call records could not be obtained.

When the Court asked the Investigating Officer and DSP Gurdaspur about the investigation conducted, it noted that no satisfactory reply was given.

Justice Shekhawat noted that "it is surprising" that the query of the Court on arraying jail officials as accused in the case was not answered by the SSP in the affidavit.

Court added that when the police have not even bothered to investigate the jail officials and have not looked into their involvement in the smuggling, "it would be impossible for the ADGP (Prisons) to even take departmental action against them."

In light of the above, the Court impleaded CBI, as respondent no. 2 and issued notice.

The matter is deferred to February 29, for further consideration.

Appearance: Rishu Mahajan advocate for the petitioner.

M.S. Bajwa for Punjab.