Punjab DGP orders crackdown on drugs
Chandigarh, June 29: With the Congress government in Punjab drawing flak for being unable to curb the drugs menace, Punjab Director General of Police (DGP) Suresh Arora on Friday issued strict directives to the field police officers to crack down on the activities of gangsters and drug smugglers.
The DGP told the police officers that they would be held accountable for any drug smuggling in their areas.
The directives were issued at a meeting of senior police officers at the Punjab Police Academy, Phillaur, around 150 km from here, on Friday.
The meeting was convened by the DGP to review the current security scenario, and the law and order situation in the state.
Issues relating to terrorist activities, radicalization of youth for anti-national activities, action against drug smugglers and gangsters were on top of the agenda.
"Reviewing the action by field units against drug smugglers, the DGP issued stringent instructions for all field officers to ensure that supply lines of drugs in their respective areas are completely plugged.
"Citing the Amarinder Singh-led government's zero tolerance policy toward drugs, the DGP warned against any complacency on the issue," a police spokesman said here.
He ordered all field officers to carry out systematic financial investigations into illegally acquired assets and properties by such smugglers and initiate the process of seizing them.
Amarinder Singh, before becoming chief minister in March last year, had taken a religious pledge to wipe out drugs from Punjab within four weeks of coming to power.
Questions are being raised on the government now as drug abuse continues unabated across Punjab, especially among youth and people in rural areas.
As per reports, 23 deaths linked to drug abuse have been reported from Punjab in June itself.
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ED summons Lalu Prasad, kin for questioning in land-for-jobs case
Patna (PTI): The Enforcement Directorate has summoned RJD president and former Bihar chief minister Lalu Prasad, his wife Rabri Devi and son Tej Pratap Yadav for questioning in the land-for-jobs money laundering case, official sources said on Tuesday.
While Prasad, 76, has been asked to depose before the federal probe agency in Patna on Wednesday, his kin have been asked to appear on Tuesday.
The statements of the three are to be recorded under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the sources said.
The sources, however, said that Prasad and his family members may not appear before the agency.
Prasad and his younger son Tejashwi Yadav have been questioned by the ED in this case earlier.
Last year, the ED filed a chargesheet in the case against Prasad's family members before a Delhi court, naming Rabri Devi and their daughters Misa Bharti and Hema Yadav as accused apart from some others.
The probe pertains to the allegation that Prasad, during his tenure as the railway minister in the UPA-1 government at the Centre, indulged in corruption for the appointment of group D substitutes in Indian Railways during 2004-2009.
According to a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) FIR, the candidates were told to "transfer land as a bribe" in return for jobs in the railways, the ED said in a statement earlier. The money laundering case is based on the CBI complaint.
"The family members of Lalu Prasad -- Rabri Devi, Misa Bharti and Hema Yadav -- who were made accused in the ED chargesheet, received land parcel(s) from the family of candidates (who were selected as group D substitutes in Indian Railways) for nominal amounts.
"Hridyanand Chaudhary, another accused named in the chargesheet, is a former employee in the gaushala of Rabri Devi who had acquired property from one of the candidates and later transferred the same to Hema Yadav," the ED has said.
Firms like A K Infosystems Private Limited and A B Exports Pvt. Ltd. were "shell" companies which received proceeds of crime for Prasad's family members, the agency said, adding that immovable properties were acquired in the name of the said companies by "front men".
Later, the ED claimed, shares were transferred to Prasad's family members for nominal amounts.
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