Bhubaneswar: Over the last few years, the Odisha police launched massive campaigns against narcotics, especially ‘Ganja’ (cannabis/marijuana/ weed) and brown sugar. During this period the seized drugs were stockpiled in huge quantity in police stations, and court ‘Malkhanas’.
The piling up of seized drugs has been a cause of concern. The Supreme Court, in the case of Union of India Vs Mohanlal & others passed a detailed order on disposal/ destruction of seized drugs especially emphasizing on pre-trial disposal of seized drugs.
However, because of some procedural and technical ambiguity/ issues, seized drugs could not be disposed of. In this backdrop, STF had approached the High Court of Odisha with a prayer for certain direction/ order to resolve the issues/ hindrances involved in disposing of the seized drugs.
On January 31, 2022, The Orissa High Court passed a landmark judgment directing the Sub-ordinate courts to dispose the applications filed under Section 52A of the NDPS Act, issuing a detailed SOP for pre-trial disposal of seized drugs.
Accordingly, steps have been taken by Odisha Police for pre-disposal of drugs. During this month on the decision of Drug Disposal Committee of the districts i.e. Kandhamal, Malkangiri, Angul, Koraput and STF huge quantity of contraband Ganja – i.e. 3.20 tonnes has been disposed/destructed at the designated incinerators following all due procedure, a senior STF official said.
The aforementioned contraband was packed in 11 cases while being seized. The seized drugs was first authenticated/ certificated by concerned courts and handed over to Drug disposal committee for the disposal/ destruction.
“So far, the STF has already destructed /disposed of more than 8.5 kg Brown Sugar as in June, 2022. Several other cases are under process (both at STF and district police level) for disposal/ destruction. It is expected that most of the seized drugs will be destructed within 3 to 6 months,” the official added.
