Over the last 10 days, the Jammu and Kashmir Police demolished at least 10 residential and commercial properties linked to alleged drug peddlers, saying the action was meant to “send a clear and unequivocal message” that those “involved in narcotics trade will face strict and visible consequences”.
However, J&K Health Minister Sakina Itoo has accused the police department, which comes under Lt Governor Manoj Sinha, of using the anti-drugs campaign as an excuse to “target the people”.
The ongoing 100-day “Nasha Mukt Jammu and Kashmir (Drug-free Jammu and Kashmir)” campaign initiated by the Lt Governor has seen several arrests and the demolition of houses and commercial complexes linked to alleged drug peddlers.
Over the last 10 days, police teams and revenue officials have demolished at least 10 houses and residential properties, mostly in south Kashmir.
While in some cases, police said these were built illegally, either on government land or without proper permission, in other cases, they said the structures were demolished as they were “acquired and developed using proceeds generated from narcotics trafficking”.
After demolishing a commercial complex comprising 15 shops at Bijbehara in south Kashmir, police had said, “During verification, it surfaced that the shopping complex had been illegally constructed on state land.” The property belonged to a “notorious drug peddler”, police said, against whom a case is registered under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. “Acting upon due legal process and in coordination with the concerned authorities, the illegal structure was demolished as part of ongoing efforts to dismantle the financial infrastructure of the drug syndicate…,” they said.
In another case, police said the house of an alleged drug peddler was demolished in Srinagar because it was “raised illegally on land acquired and developed using proceeds generated from narcotics trafficking”. Police further said the “action sends a clear and unequivocal message (that) properties from proceeds of drug trafficking will not be spared and those involved in the narcotics trade will face strict and visible action”.
J&K Health Minister Sakina Itoo on Friday criticised the police action. “Don’t target the people making it (drug trafficking) an excuse,” Itoo said while talking to reporters. “If you arrest someone, where does he get these drugs from? The Home department should check that drugs don’t come here.”
Itoo warned that “bulldozing the houses, demolishing the property” will have negative consequences and called for its immediate stop.
“This is absolutely wrong,” she said, adding, “If you recover drugs or something else from someone, you demolish a property that is not even in his name, that is a property of his parents…”
This story was originally published in indianexpress.com. Read the full story here.
