JALANDHAR, Punjab—Triggering a new blast on the political scene of Punjab ahead of Lok Sabha elections, former Punjab Jails Director General of Police (DGP) Shashi Kant, on Tuesday, named big faces in state politics involved in the state’s drug trade. Kant also disclosed that former DGP Narinder Pal Singh Aulakh, and present incumbent Suresh Arora were aware of the links that political personalities had with the drug mafia.
In a press conference, those named by Shashi Kant include senior Akali leaders Gulzar Singh Ranike, Ajit Singh Kohar, both of whom are cabinet ministers of Punjab, as well as Chief Parliamentary Secretary Virsa Singh Valtoha, Tarn Taran Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) Harmeet Singh Sandu, Amritsar District Planning Committee chairman Vir Singh Lopoke, Congress MLA from Amritsar Central OP Soni and Jalandhar-based Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Jimmy Kalia.
Kant made it clear that he has taken up the matter as an anti-drug activist, and not in his official capacity as an Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) representative. Kant said, “He had submitted a four-page list to the state government some months ago. The list described names of 98 persons, including those of about a dozen senior police officials of Punjab, bureaucrats, leaders of the Congress, the BJP, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) Badal (B) and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). But the government has not addressed the issue nor taken any action till date.”
The former DGP said that as Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) of Intelligence in 2007, he himself initiated identifing the bigwigs whose hands were behind drug smuggling in Punjab, and also those harboring drug peddlers. He said that, Chief Minister (CM) Parkash Badal had snubbed him for preparing the list without his prior consent.
Kant said, “In year 2007, on the basis of secret information that a huge stock of drugs were at the residence of Gulzar Singh Ranike, Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) planned to raid Ranike’s house. But, when I apprised the CM of the matter, Badal instructed me to make sure that there would be no raid as it would bring bad name to the Akali Dal.”
The former Police officer expressed surprised at how the Punjab government had given a clean chit to Bikram Singh Majithia in the ₹60 Billion synthetic drug racket in which drug lord Jagdish Bhola was the prime accused. He also slammed former Punjab CM Captain Amarinder Singh for not raising the issue drug trading during his ongoing election campaign.
