Minister of State for Home Affairs, Harsh Sanghavi, lambasted Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for his recent remark on calling Gujarat a ‘Hub of Drugs.’ He reacted by saying, “The Congress party is acting wickedly. The drugs were seized, not found. Rahul Gandhi needs to cross-check facts before mentioning.”
Sanghavi stated, “Two students are like, they always have some problems with Gujarat. Now, we will have to find their teachers who could seriously teach them and clarify their doubts. The Drugs were seized, not found. I am saying this because only teachers can tell them the right things (to say).”
He added, “Today, one of the students is here and this student is exceptional as he even eats wheat flour in ‘litres’. So, I want to tell him that the Mafia did not come to deposit the drugs in the police station of Ahmedabad and Surat. On the contrary, Gujarat Police officials have done a commendable job on Indo-Pak border areas to catch and nab these mafias.”
Harsh Sanghavi attacked and criticised the biggest party in opposition saying, “The powerless Congress is now dreaming of getting power in Gujarat. It is not good to mislead the citizens of the state, by making such loose statements. They are engaged in misleading. People of the state have now recognised them.”
While talking to reporters on drug seizures, Sanghavi asserted, “In last 11 months over 600 accused were nabbed in drug cases across Gujarat. 25 of them were Pakistanis. None of them has got bail. Gujarat Police has done daring operations on the Pakistan border and prevented drugs from going to other states. We’re proactively working on it.”
The Gujarat Anti-Terrorism Squad July this year had seized 70 kilograms of heroin worth over INR 350 crore from a container near the Mundra port. Meanwhile, the shipping bills and customs filings related to the container cited that it contained only the textile items.
In a similar seizure in May, nearly 52 kilograms of cocaine were seized from an import consignment at the port by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence. The illicit drugs were estimated to be valued at over INR 500 crore in the international market.
These series of drug seizure events have taken place for over a month after the Gujarat Anti-Terrorism Squad and the Indian Coast Guard stopped a Pakistani boat off the Jakhau coast in the Kutch district and held nine crew members for carrying heroin worth INR 280 crore.
Adding more details while speaking to media in Gandhinagar, the Home Minister of Gujarat said, “To free the youth from the clutches of drugs and boost the morale of the police, Gujarat has implemented a drug reward policy across the country, as a result of which a huge quantity of narcotics has been seized in the last one year. None of the drug dealers has got bail.”
“Gujarat is at the forefront in catching drugs. Gujarat Police has also seized drugs outside Gujarat in states like Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi. The so-called national youth leader (Rahul Gandhi) has committed a crime by playing politics instead of fighting social evils (mismanagement of illegal drugs). The law-and-order situation in any Congress-ruled state is not good according to reports released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB),” Sanghvi said.
He acclaimed Gujarat Police officials for catching drug mafias by posing as beggars, ‘panipuriwalas’ and milkmen. Narrating one of the incidents, Sanghvi stated, “Gujarat Police had arrested Salim, who sold drugs covered under vegetables in the Congress-ruled Maharashtra state.”
Gujarat has registered the highest number of cases under laws related to Prohibition and Narcotic drugs, says the latest report of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB).
In 2021, of the 10.93 lakh cases registered in the country under the Prohibition Law and the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substance (NDPS) Act, 2.84 lakh were in Gujarat, followed by 2.15 lakh in Tamil Nadu.
Whereas, in 2020, Gujarat accounted for 2.42 lakh such cases, while Tamil Nadu recorded 1.68 lakh cases.
As per the report, a 17 per cent increase in cases was reported under Prohibition Act over a year in Gujarat.
The state, during the year 2020, accounted for 2.43 lakh cases, the highest in number followed by Tamil Nadu at 1.74 lakh.
Similar to the previous year, the maximum number of cases in both Gujarat and Tamil Nadu were attributed to those related to the Prohibition Act.
Of the total 2.84 lakh cases in Gujarat, 2.83 lakh alone accounted for crimes under the Prohibition Act, and the same in Tamil Nadu was 2.08 lakh. The total number of cases registered under the Prohibition Act in 2021 was 6.78 lakh, the NCRB report claimed.
