Bhubaneswar: The Orissa High Court has appreciated the efforts of Odisha Police in disposal or destruction of seized narcotic drugs. The court also mentioned that it expects the work in future to be undertaken with the same vigour.
In the recent years during the massive campaign against the narcotics especially Ganja (also known as Cannabis/ Marijuana/ weeds) and Brown sugar (also known as Heroin/ smack) by Odisha police, there was huge piling up of seized narcotic drugs.
As the trial of narcotics cases takes time, these seized drugs remain stocked at police stations/ court Malkhanas exposed to all kind of vulnerabilities.
The piling up of seized drugs has been a cause of concern and the Supreme Court in
the case of Union of India Vrs. 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 by Odisha Police.
In this backdrop, the STF approached the High Court of Orissa with a prayer for certain direction/ order to resolve the issues/ hindrances involved in disposing of the seized drugs.
Finally on 31.01.2022, the High Court was pleased to pass a land mark judgment directing the Sub-ordinate courts to dispose the applications filed U/s. Sec.52A of NDPS Act, 1985 issuing a detailed SOP in this regard.
Accordingly, STF as well as concerned district police moved prayer to the respective courts for Pre-trial disposal of drugs. In this process huge quantity of narcotic drugs i.e. more than 658
Quintals Ganja and 27 Kg Brown Sugar were disposed of observing all legal formalities and pollution control guidelines.
Till date, prayer is under process for certification in 2095 cases of Ganja and 659 cases Brown Sugar. All these have been achieved within a short period of time.
