Court to pronounce order on Punjab drug racket on Nov 18
Darpan News Desk IANS, 26 Oct, 2021 11:36 AM
Chandigarh, Oct 26 (IANS) After over three years "delay" in the Punjab multi-crore drug case, the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Tuesday announced it will pass an order on November 18.
It also observed that the matter has been pending adjudication without any effective order being passed since 2018.
Earlier, an application was filed by the state for examining status reports filed in 2018 be taken up on priority.
After examining the plea, an order was passed by a bench of Justices A.G. Masih and A.K. Verma to enable the prosecuting agency to proceed as per law, an official statement quoting the office of Advocate General A.P.S. Deol said.
The bench considered the plea raised on behalf of the state and after hearing the Advocate General for an hour, orally observed that the bench "is conscious of the fact that the matter has been pending adjudication without any effective order being passed since May 23, 2018 and, therefore, the bench does not want to give an impression that we are sitting over the matter".
"So considering the plea raised in the application, the court has directed the Registrar Judicial to produce the status reports in sealed cover in chamber and observed that we will examine the reports in these days prior to passing the order on November 18," said the statement.
The request of Satya Pal Jain, representing the Centre, to file further status report with regard to the progress in the extradition of certain accused as well as the latest report by the Enforcement Directorate and other agencies be filed on November 15, two days before the pronouncement of the order.
Earlier, the case was being heard by the bench of Justices Rajan Gupta and Ajay Tewari but the latter recused himself from hearing the case on September 1.
The minister and his son are accused in the October 3 incident in which nine persons, including four farmers, were mowed down by SUVs. The minister's son Ashish Mishra has already been arrested.
It's likely that Sidhu will put forth the list of demands in the Punjab government as he is upset with the appointments in the government. He has resigned from the post of state president, but it has not been accepted yet by Sonia Gandhi. The meeting gains significance as it comes ahead of the CWC meeting.
The civil secretariat houses the top offices of the government, including those of the Lt. Governor Manoj Sinha and his advisors. Police tried to intervene to restrain the mourners from carrying out the sit-in outside the civil secretariat.
"My son will go to the police tomorrow and assist the probe. He has not escaped anywhere," Mishra said on his arrival in Lucknow. He said that his son was very much in their house in Lakhimpur.
Punjab Congress President Navjot Singh Sidhu on Friday proceeded on indefinite fast in support of his demand for action against Ashish Mishra, the son of Union Minister Ajay Mishra and main accused in Sunday's violence in which nine persons, including four farmers, were killed.
Following a tipoff, the DRI sleuths swooped on the port on October 4 and detected the huge narcotics contraband, valued at Rs 125 crore, among boxes of a cooking oil container arriving from Iran and are now probing the possibility of a bigger drug smuggling racket with international ramifications for India and other countries.
