Assistant SP IPS Teghbir Singh Sandhu, Additional SP Aniket Bharati, and Police Inspector Pratapsingh Bahure of Azad Nagar Police (had additional charge of Pawarwadi) at the media briefing.
At a recent media briefing, Additional SP Aniket Bharati while giving details about an arrest made under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 shared with the press some startling revelations. Bharati said drug peddler Suhail Ahmed Ikhlaque Ahmed nabbed with 53 grams of MD powder worth Rs 1.06 lakh on his person has told the investigators that he came to Malegaon to sell the psychedelic drug on ‘popular’ demand.
The revelation made by Addl SP Bharati should give sleepless nights to people wielding influence in the society, as the episode increases their responsibility by manifold. Bharati added old criminals with police record and offences related to drugs registered against them are no longer active. It has now come to the fore that new criminals (drug peddlers) have reared their heads and taken places of the old ones.
“With the emergence of new criminals on the drugs front, one thing is becoming crystal clear that along with the police action taking social action was equally necessary to curb the drugs menace and for that purpose all the stakeholders need to work together as a team,” he said. The Addl SP added it was high time that all came together for the sake of a drugs-free Malegaon.
Bharati gave a public call to the functionaries of political parties, organisations, NGOs, administration of schools and colleges and the police to unite against the drugs menace. “The summer vacations are over now. The schools have just started to resume their classes. We now plan to form police squads and assign them in phases to different schools for spreading awareness about the dangers of drugs,” he said.
Drugs worth Rs 1.06 lakh seized
On June 10, the Pawarwadi police led by PI Sudhir Patil received a tip-off disclosing that a person will be coming for selling MD powder underneath a bridge on the busy National Highway 60 which is part of the Asian Highway 47. The police raided the place and found one person was loitering around under the bridge. On asking, he revealed his name and told the police that originally he was a resident of Lalle Chowk in Islampura locality in Malegaon but spends most of his years in and around Mumbai.
The police told him that they have information about the purpose of his presence at the said place. As the police were still confronting him, he got panicked and started giving evasive answers. PI Sudhir Patil then gave him a notice in Hindi under Section 50 of the NDPS Act, 1985 in presence of panch witnesses, a photographer and a person with weight measuring equipment. On frisking, the police found on his person 53 grams of MD powder worth Rs 1.06 lakh placed in a plastic pouch. He has been arrested under Section 8C and 22C of the NDPS Act, 1985.
