Hyderabad drugs racket: 'Special Investigation Team' asserts its capability

Hyderabad: There has been criticism about the legality and powers of the prohibition and excise department in investigating the drug cases unearthed in the city. Questions have been asked on social media about the calibre of the department and its personnel. 

Stung by this criticism, top bosses of the department on Monday said that the P&E department would continue its investigation as per law, and warned that they would take legal action if baseless allegations were made.

Speaking at a press conference, commissioner of Prohibition and Excise department R.V. Chandravadan said that the department began questioning film personalities on July 19 and has grilled 17 persons to date, including 17 accused persons, five from the film industry and five from other sectors including educational institutes.

“We have issued notices to film personalities as per law and questioned them following the guidelines of the Supreme Court of India,” he said. He said that sections 41, 42 and 53 of the NDPS Act allow the department to investigate narcotics related cases. 

“Special Investigation Team (SIT) constituted on drug cases by our department is having legality. We are taking support of other departments like police, Narcotics Control Bureau, etc in this case. The criticism about the experience of SIT in inv-estigation is a false allegation. SIT has good investigation skills,” he said.

The commissioner said that actress Charmme had approached the court on the investigation. “We are not forcing anyone to give samples for narcotic tests. Those who are willing are providing samples,” he said.

Enforcement director Akun Sabharwal said, “We are submitting details of interviews and int-errogation of film stars to the court every day. We have collected samples for drug tests from those who are interested in providing it and we did not insist that anyone give samples. We are submitting the same to courts stating that they were not interested in providing samples,” he said. He questioned critics for making allegations without seeing the case diary.