Shillong: Meghalaya Director General of Police LR Bishnoi on Friday said 80 percent of the drugs-related chargesheets are rejected by the courts for non compliance of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) norms.
Voicing concern over the “procedural lapses” , the police chief said the Investigating Officers (IO) are being given training so that they follow the NDPS norms while filing chargesheet against the accused drug peddlers.
“We are providing training to the IOs so that we can build a water-tight case against the drug peddlers. Due to the procedural lapses in filing the chargesheet, 80 percent of the chargesheets are rejected by the courts,” he told reporters.
Stating that over the past four months 134 have been arrested in the state for peddling drugs, Bishnoi however revealed not a single chargesheet has been filed so far.
“The conviction rate is poor in the state, but the police department is taking action to improve this rate. The conviction rate is slowly improving, but this area also remains a concern,” he said.
Meanwhile, out of total arrested five are repeat offenders, suggesting that these peddlers are able to wriggle out free due to shoddy investigation and subsequent filing of chargesheets.
Stating that the Meghalaya police has “declared a war” on drug peddlers in the state, Bishnoi said that in the past four months, heroin, opium, cannabis, Phensydyl, methamphetamine, worth Rs. 18.33 crore have been seized.
Moreover, cash, mobile phones and vehicles were also seized by the police during the same period.
