Drugs-on-cruise case: SIT to fix responsibility of NCB officials
Darpan News Desk IANS, 27 May, 2022 11:23 AM
New Delhi, May 27 (IANS) The SIT formed in the drugs-on-cruise case might be filing a report with the Ministry of Home Affairs to fix responsibility for conducting shoddy probe in the matter, sources in the Narcotics Control Bureau have suggested.
The report will fix the responsibility of the officials who were involved in the investigation due to which Aryan Khan and others were given clean chit in the case. The MHA is keeping a close eye on the matter.
Earlier, NCB official Ashish Ranjan Prasad was placed under suspension. Later his suspension was revoked and he was transferred to CISF. Another NCB official who faced the music was Intelligence Official V.V. Singh who filled the arrest memo of Aryan Khan, son of mega star Shahrukh Khan. Singh was placed under suspension which has not been revoked as of now.
Sameer Wankhede, who was heading the Mumbai Zone of the NCB, was sent to the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI). Vishwanath Tripathi, who was the part of the NCB team which conducted the raid was also suspended.
Sources have said that the officials who directly or indirectly implicated any innocent in the matter will not be spared. If any person who was travelling on Cordelia Cruise was falsely booked, the official can face the music. The team which conducted raid at Cordelia Cruise committed huge blunders -- chats leaked to media before the court hearing was one of them.
Action can be suggested against a few officials for not conducting the blood test of Aryan Khan before placing him under arrest. The SIT has also learnt that some witnesses were not trustworthy but they assisted the NCB team in the raid. They only harmed the NCB reputation and its investigation.
"The NDPS sections which were added into the case to prevent Aryan Khan from getting bail will also be looked into. There were allegations of harassments levelled by Ananya Pandey and others. When allegations of extortion were levelled it was taken very seriously by the SIT. A report will be prepared to finalize the responsibility of the officials," the source said.
This report is likely to be shared with the MHA next month.
High drama was witnessed on Thursday after 125 of 179 international passengers, who arrived at Sri Guru Ram Das Jee International Airport Rajasansi, near here, from Italy, in an Air India flight tested positive on arrival. The Covid passengers were asked to quarantine in local hospital as per the guidelines of the government.
On Wednesday, The Prime Minister's rally in Ferozepur had to be cancelled due to a security lapse after some protesters blocked a route and forced his convoy to spend about 20 minutes on a flyover. The Prime Minister was enroute the National Martyrs Memorial at Hussainiwala when the incident happened.
Although the department has all infrastructural needs in place to deal with the large number of cases expected in case of the third wave becoming a reality, he also appealed to the people to get themselves fully vaccinated against the virus as it is the most potent tool to avoid Covid-19.
Regretting that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had to cancel his scheduled visit to Ferozepur midway, Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi said on Wednesday that there was no security lapse that led to the cancellation of the Prime Ministers visit to the bordering town.
Holding the Punjab government squarely responsible for the "gross security lapse" during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Punjab, that eventually led to cancellation of all his programmes, former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Wednesday demanded dismissal of the government and imposition of President's rule.
With the spike in Covid-19 cases, Punjab on Tuesday imposed statewide night curfew daily from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. and ordered closure of all educational institutions till January 15.
