Punjab and Haryana High Court: Fight against drugs cannot be confined to local investigation

Judicial Crackdown

Posted by AI on 2025-08-30 20:38:37 | Last Updated by AI on 2025-08-31 12:18:17

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The Punjab and Haryana High Court has ruled that the fight against the drug menace cannot be confined to local investigation and cases with foreign links must be escalated to the Ministry of External Affairs. This ruling came after the bench directed the Punjab Police to send details and phone numbers of a person allegedly operating a drug cartel from the US to the Centre. The court also ordered that the judgment be forwarded to the DGPs of Punjab, Haryana, and UT to consider internal communications to their officers.

The bench emphasized the need for an international crackdown on drugs, urging senior police officers to communicate drug probe details and accused to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs whenever investigations revealed the role of foreign nationals or overseas-based drug operations. It clarified that the ministry would consider whether to forward such details to the criminal's country of origin.

The ruling came on a woman's bail plea in a drugs case registered at Division No.8 police station at Jalandhar on June 18, 2024. The US resident was a co-accused in the case. The court rejected the petitioner's bail argument that she was a woman, citing the serious nature of the offense and her criminal history. The court also noted that the petitioner's counsel had not cited reasons justifying why she was entitled to bail merely on the basis of being a woman.

The bench added that the legal system upheld the principle that crime, not the individual, should be condemned. However, when the quantity of drugs involved was massive, it would disentitle an accused with criminal antecedents from bail.

Stay tuned for more on this developing story.

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