The drug menace is more than a law-and-order problem in poll-bound Punjab

During tough electoral battles, the gloves come off. In Punjab, the ruling Congress unabashedly stirred the hornet’s nest when it threw its weight behind Sukhpal Singh Khaira. Khaira—who was among the rebel Aam Aadmi Party MLAs to join the Congress last year—was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on money laundering charges on November 11, 2021. And, he was in jail when the Congress declared him its candidate from Bholath in Kapurthala district.

According to the ED, Khaira had links to a convicted political functionary and drug smuggler Gurdev Singh, who, in turn, had connections with a UK-based alleged drug kingpin Major Singh Bajwa. Gurdev has been cooling his heels in jail since 2015. The ED says Bajwa was smuggling narcotics substances into Punjab via Pakistan through his Lahore-based contacts.

The ED investigations, accessed by THE WEEK, note that Gurdev has admitted to funding Khaira’s election campaign. The controversial leader was granted bail by the Punjab and Haryana High Court on January 28; he filed his nomination on January 31.

Khaira’s nomination created divisions within the party’s Punjab unit; ministers like Rana Gurjeet Singh appealed to party president Sonia Gandhi to expel Khaira. Gurjeet—known to be close to former chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh—said it would be difficult for the Congress to defend its move to field Khaira after it has “sworn to eliminate drugs”. Coincidentally, the Charanjit Singh Channi government has inherited the twin flagship programmes of Amarinder Singh to battle drug menace in the border state—the Buddy and Drug Abuse Prevention Officers programmes. The fate of these plans now hinges on the next government’s policies.

With elections on the horizon, the drug menace remains a key political issue in Punjab. The biggest challenge for the next government will be to break the deadly nexus of drug peddlers, policemen, politicians and inimical elements across the border. “We have zero tolerance for any nexus involving police and politicians, with drug traffickers and cross-border support,” said Harpreet Singh Sidhu, chief of Punjab’s anti-drug special task force.

The allegations against Khaira had their origin in 2015, when the Punjab Police seized 1.8kg heroin, a revolver, 25 live cartridges, two Pakistani SIMs and 24 gold biscuits from Fazilka, a town on the India-Pakistan border. Subsequently, a case was registered against 11 people under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act and Arms Act. During the probe, Khaira’s name cropped up, and based on the evidence produced by the police, a special court of Fazilka issued him summons. Khaira filed a special leave petition in the Supreme Court and got a stay on the proceedings in December 2017. The matter is pending for decision. Since offences under sections of the NDPS Act and Arms Act also come under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, the ED initiated a probe against the Congressman on January 21, 2021.

Khaira’s son Mehtab admits that his father and Gurdev exchanged some phone calls. “Yes, my father knew Gurdev Singh like he knew many other [party] workers, but how can Gurdev lend any financial assistance [to my father] for election expenses if he had been in jail since 2015?” he asked. “Moreover, as per the ED’s findings, he was defaulting in the repayment of his own bank loans and facing recovery suits.”

The ED, however, claimed that Khaira’s expenses between April 2014 and March 2020 amounted to Rs6.6 crore, while his declared income was Rs2.7 crore for the same period. Based on its investigations and recoveries, the ED filed a prosecution complaint against Gurdev and Khaira under the PMLA on January 6, 2022.

Congress spokesperson Manish Tiwari, who represents Anandpur Sahib in Parliament, said the real challenge for any elected government is to adopt a multi-dimensional approach to make Punjab a drug-free state. Incidentally, last year, the SAD had accused the Congress government of a “political vendetta” after the name of its leader Bikram Singh Majithia cropped up in the infamous Jagdish Singh Bhola drug case.

Bhola, a former international wrestler and sacked deputy superintendent of police, was convicted in the sensational multi-crore drug racket busted by the Punjab Police in 2013.

Based on the investigation conducted in the case so far, movable and immovable properties worth Rs96.06 crore, representing proceeds of crime, have been provisionally attached. The ED got a shot in the arm when the Special (PMLA) Court in Mohali, on August 9, 2021, allowed the confiscation of assets worth approximately Rs10 crore in the case against four accused—Roy Bahadur Nirwal, Mahesh Gaba, Anoop Singh Kahlon and Varinder Singh alias Raja—who had absconded during the trial.

Several other names have cropped up during investigation—including those of NRIs and foreign citizens—which is keeping Punjab politicians on tenterhooks. According to documents accessed by THE WEEK, the ED has issued Letters of Request under the PMLA for 16 persons based in Canada and two in the UK. An Interpol red corner notice has also been issued against Kahlon, who allegedly skipped bail and fled the country. The Bhola drug racket is so widespread that look-out circulars have also been issued against 18 persons, including some of those named as accused by the ED.

“Whether it is Khaira or Majithia, the law says a person is innocent until proven guilty,” said Tiwari. He, however, points out that the drug menace in Punjab can no longer be handled like a law-and-order problem. “It is a sociological and economic problem multiplied by the availability of drugs from across the border,” he said.

With party alliances changing fast in the election-bound state, calculations are being made by parties jostling to come to power by building local vote banks and catering to popular sentiments. Political dynamics may change, but popular sentiment continues to demand an end to the drug menace in Punjab.