Excise Dept decides to co-ordinate with NCB

Hyderabad: In an attempt to take the case of drug peddling in the city to its logical end, Prohibition and Excise Enforcement Director Akun Sabharwal on Saturday sought the help of Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in curbing the menace once and for all. Union Minister of State for Labour Bandaru Dattatreya said on Friday that he would discuss with the Union Home Minister about the drug racket.

Along with a couple of excise officials, Sabharwal met NCB Zonal Director S K Sinha and other officials at Attapur to share the details relating to drugs cases registered by the Excise Department in Hyderabad in connection with the seizure of high-end drugs, such as cocaine, LSD and MDMA.

The NCB is the apex coordinating agency. It is mandated with the task of coordination of actions by various wings, State governments and other authorities under the NDPS Act.

The Bureau collects and analyses data relating to seizures of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substance, study the trends, modus operandi, collect and disseminate intelligence and work in close cooperation with the Customs, State Police and other law enforcement agencies.

However, neither the Excise Department nor the police had been sharing details with the NCB for long. Prompted by Bandaru Dattatreya’s statement that he would discuss the drugs issue with the Union Home Minister, the Excise officials immediately met the NCB officials and updated them with the developments.

In view of the rise in drug menace, the NCB officials offered to train the Excise officials in drug law enforcement, besides providing sophisticated drug testing kits for the special teams.

It is also learnt that the NCB officials asked the Excise officials to be extra cautious while eliciting information from the film personalities from July 19 because confession under section 67 of the NDPS Act can be used as evidence in the courts of law. It may be recalled the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Excise Department had issued notices to 12 film personalities asking them to appear before the investigation team from July 19 in connection with the drug case.

The NCB officials and Akun Sabharwal had also discussed the strategies to fight the drug menace such as creating awareness among the youth and the manner in which statements of the drug peddlers and substance abusers be recorded under the provisions of NDPS Act so as to ensure convictions and stronger punishments for the accused.

Speaking after the meeting, NCB Zonal Director S K Sinha said the drug menace was rampant in metro cities. He said the agency would work in perfect coordination with State agencies to fight drug menace.