HC seeks govt, agencies’ response to petition against Narcotics Bureau DDG

hc seeks govt, agencies’ response to petition against narcotics bureau ddg

Mumbai, India – October 27, 2021: NCB Deputy Director General (DDG) Gyaneshwar Singh reaches NCB office with his five-member team, in Mumbai, India, on Wednesday, October 27, 2021. (Photo by Satish Bate/Hindustan Times)

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court, which is hearing a petition from a Thane-based journalist, has asked the director-general of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), the CBI and the central government to submit their responses by June 12. The petition accuses a senior Delhi-based NCB officer, Gyaneshwar Singh, of passing disposal orders for seized drugs and psychotropic substances in four zonal units of the NCB in March 2023, even though he was present at only one. The rules require an officer to be physically present at any location where a drug disposal order is passed.

The petitioner emphasised before the court that the disposal of seized narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances was “one of the most vital activities”, and hence a specific procedure had been prescribed by a union finance ministry notification of December 2022. Under Rule 21 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substance (Seizure, Storage, Sampling and Disposal) Rules, 2022, the chairman and members of the drug disposal committee have to physically examine and verify the weight and other details of each piece of seized material with reference to the seizure report, chemical analysis report and other documents, and have to record their findings in each case, the petitioner submitted.

Deputy Director General (Operations) Singh, an IPS officer of 1999 batch, had earlier headed the NCB’s internal vigilance inquiry into alleged misconduct by an NCB team headed by then Zonal Director Sameer Wankhede while probing the October 2021 Cordelia cruise drug bust case, in which Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan was allegedly implicated. The NCB headquarters had sent the Special Enquiry Team (SET)’s findings against the Cordelia team to the ministry of home affairs, which in turn sent them to Wankhede’s parent cadre and the CBI.

When contacted by HT, DDG Singh declined to respond to the allegations.

An NCB source, when contacted, said, “There are only sweeping allegations in the complaint without any proof against DDG Singh. After receipt of the complaint, the NCB initiated a preliminary inquiry into the allegations that there were lapses in the disposal of the seized narcotics and psychotropic substances by the drug disposal committee in March 2023. It is so far known that on March 3, 2023, Singh was himself present in Delhi and therefore only pre-meeting in hybrid mode (video-conferencing) was done for two of the three other locations for drug disposal.”

The NCB source said the seized narcotics were destroyed later on different dates under the supervision of DDG Singh as per the rules. “The inquiry is being conducted, and based on its eventual findings, it will be decided if the matter is fit for departmental proceedings or a probe by an agency like the CBI,” he said. The source said that Singh had allegedly been targeted via a smear campaign for his professional work, especially from the time of his stint with the SET in the Cordelia case.

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