Dibrugarh, May 21 : Dibrugarh police’s latest and most potent weapon in their war on drugs is a vegetable seller.
Every morning, a wiry middle-aged man pushes a cart loaded with vegetables around a cluster of Dibrugarh neighbourhoods in search of buyers and news on narcotics movement.
Meet Rashid Ali (name changed), an under-cover informer and Dibrugarh police’s new best friend.
The job, of course, is far from easy. Keeping an eye on cocaine and marijuana over mounds of potato and pumpkin requires skill and patience.
It helps, though, that Ali is a former addict. He had been taking drugs since he was a teenager and was booked by the police twice. On being released, he quickly went back to his old ways, as most addicts are wont to do.
Two deaths in the family changed all that.
“Maine apne do bhai ko kam umar main hi kho diya, sab is nashe ke liye (I have lost two of my brothers to drugs at a very early age),” Ali said. He now promises to work with the police till his last breath to root out smugglers from the district.
For a police force that had long realised that mass awareness and participation was as crucial to their movement against drugs as the periodic raids they conduct on narcotics dens, such former addicts are a boon.
“People like Ali show us that we have been successful in our attempts at least to a certain extent. We are making efforts to ensure that such people are secure from addiction,” a police officer said.
Dibrugarh’s notorious underbelly, comprising primarily a flourishing drug cartel, has frustrated policemen, destroyed homes and ensnared youths. And the ease with which drug dealers and petty suppliers walked in and out of custody baffled the law-enforcing agencies.
After forming special squads and running awareness programmes to fight the drugs, the police now feel they have finally arrived at a strategy that would not allow drug dealers to escape as easily. Leading the mission is the district police chief, Anurag Agarwal, assisted by two young IPS officers, additional superintendent of police (headquarters) Diganta Bora and assistant superintendent (probationer) Rafiqul Alam Laskar.
During the last five months, police in Dibrugarh have been able to arrest 12 drug smugglers and conduits. In all, 100 grams of opium, 137gm heroin and 10kg ganja have been seized.
Those arrested had been booked under provisions of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act. “None of the 12 have been able to get bail thanks to this new strategy. We often get inputs about people who are related to the drug business. The first thing we do is to watch the person. Whenever we get confirmed information about any person who is carrying drugs, we get hold of him,” Agarwal said.
Catching the drug dealers and conduits with banned substances rather than just picking them up on the basis of suspicion has made their work much easier.
Besides, the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) in Guwahati is dispatching forensic reports of the drugs seized by the police during raids and arrests as soon as they can.
“Earlier, we had to face a lot of problems while producing evidence in courts because of the delay in receiving FSL reports. But after we made a request, they have started sending early reports which has helped us a lot,” Agarwal added.
Telegraph India
