Track them down: Punjab BJP chief demands probe into drug money trail

The Punjab unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday pressed for a probe into the drug money trail to track down the “powerful” end beneficiaries. 

Writing to Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, State BJP president Sunil Jakhar demanded that an investigation under the supervision of the Punjab and Haryana High Court Chief Justice Sheel Nagu be conducted to track down the end beneficiaries in the drug money trail.

“This is important if your government wants to establish credibility and resolve in the fight against drugs,” Mr. Jakhar said.

“It would thus be appropriate if you, as Chief Minister, write to the honourable Punjab and Haryana High Court Chief Justice seeking his intervention to set up a ‘time-bound’ probe by a credible agency, or even a multi-agency probe, under his supervision to uncover the end beneficiaries in the drug money trail,” he added.

The BJP leader said that it is imperative to ‘follow the money’ in the trail, without which the exercise to root out drugs from Punjab is not only futile but a farce, and the flow of money has to be established to catch the big fish and arrest the end beneficiaries, be it politicians across party lines or officials. 

“The drug cartels in Punjab cannot thrive without some or the other kind of patronage,” he said.

He added that the recovery of narcotics in Punjab goes into several thousands of crores of rupees, which underlies the rot that exists. “Not just drug money trail, the probe should also include in its scope the trail of illicit money from mining and sand mafia so that the guilty can be brought to book,” Mr. Jakhar said.