SHILLONG, March 30: A division bench of the High Court of Meghalaya has directed the General-Officer Commanding of the 101 Area and the Director-General Assam Rifles to verify the position and take immediate remedial action if drugs are sometimes transported in army trucks, which are generally immune to checking.
Pursuant to the previous order, the amicus curiae on Wednesday forwarded details of certain places where the drug menace is prevalent.
“These areas cover several localities in Shillong and its neighbourhoods and it appears that the list is illustrative rather than exhaustive since it does not refer to several other parts of the state,” the court said.
It was further submitted that since Meghalaya falls within the transit route of drugs emanating from a neighbouring country or going to such neighbouring country, there is a modus operandi being followed and, quite alarmingly, recently an army major from Imphal had been implicated for facilitating the transit of drugs.
“Indeed, the meticulous work done by amicus curiae involved visiting correctional homes, opioid substitution therapy (OST) centres and discovering from some inmates that for the safe passage of the drugs, high-ranking defence personnel may have been roped in. Unbelievable though such allegation is, it has to be noticed nonetheless that according to the relevant inmates, drugs are sometimes transported in army trucks, which are generally immune from checking,” the order said.
The court said a copy of the order should be sent to the GOC, 101 Area and to the DGAR for verifying the position and taking immediate remedial action.
“If what is reported is true, there must also be intelligence reports received by the state in such regard and the chief secretary should coordinate with, inter alia, the army and Assam Rifles, both to make the highest officials aware of the problem and for immediate action being taken,” the order said.
The order also said that it may do well for teams of flying army checkers to be deployed along the route to make surprise checks on army vehicles which are otherwise not subjected to checks by civilian personnel.
“The other area that needs to be looked into is for therapy centres to be set up within the state as many families affected have to look beyond the state where wards are sent in the absence of adequate facilities being available in Meghalaya, despite the urgent need thereof. There may also be a need for de-addiction centres, particularly to house young female offenders,” the order said.
