The Supreme Court has made Haryana and Himachal Pradesh parties to a Punjab drugs case and directed the Chief Secretaries of the three states to immediately convene a meeting of all “stakeholders” and file affidavits within five days on the action taken in the matter.
A Bench of Justice Sanjay Karol and Justice Augustine George Masih also asked Punjab to disclose the steps taken to trace dismissed state police officer Raj Jit Singh Hundal, who has been declared a proclaimed offender.
The directions came days after the Supreme Court asked Punjab Advocate-General Maninderjit Singh Bedi to prepare a “written note detailing the steps taken by the state to curb drug trafficking in Punjab as also in bordering states”.
The Bench was hearing a bunch of matters related to Punjab. One of them was placed before the top court after the Punjab and Haryana High Court in April dismissed as non-maintainable a bail petition filed against the State of Punjab by an accused in a drugs case registered on February 18, 2023, at the Dera Baba Nanak police station in Gurdaspur district.
The case stems from a report submitted by BSF officials on “suspicious movement ahead of the border fencing”. According to the prosecution, 19.85 kg of heroin was recovered following a thorough search.
As the matter came up for resumed hearing, the Supreme Court Bench de-tagged the two matters before observing that Bedi, at its asking, held a meeting with the officers of Punjab as well as the Himachal Advocate-General. “We have interacted with Maninderjit Singh Bedi and Anup Kumar Rattan, Himachal Advocate-General,” the Bench observed, adding that both had submitted a short note.
“In the attending facts and circumstances, we deem it appropriate to implead the States of Himachal Pradesh and Haryana, through their Chief Secretaries, as party respondents,” the Bench directed.
The top court further asked the petitioners, including the newly impleaded respondents, to “positively” file their affidavits. “The State of Punjab must also disclose in its affidavit the steps taken to search the corpus of Raj Jit Singh Hundal, who, following the registration of FIR No.1 of 2017 of STF, SAS Nagar police station, now stands dismissed from service; a look-out notice stands issued against him; his property stands attached; and he has been declared a proclaimed offender pursuant to an order dated August 17, 2023, passed by the JMIC, Mohali,” the Bench said. The matter has been listed for further hearing on August 4.