Kupwara court rejects bail of 5 army-men who ‘ran narcotics racket’ along LoC
Srinagar: A court on Monday rejected the bail application of a “well-organised gang” of five Army personnel and four civilians who were arrested last month for allegedly running a narcotics racket along the Line of Control (LoC) in Kupwara district of north Kashmir.
Rejecting the bail application, the court of the Additional District and Sessions Judge, Kupwara, ruled that the Army personnel “who are protectors of the society became perpetrators…in the illegal sale and procurement of drugs” and their custodial investigation was necessary to arrest other suspected members of the gang.
Citing a 2022 judgement of the Supreme Court and two judgements of J&K and Ladakh High Court, the court, while turning down the bail application, ruled that the “menace of drugs is on [the] increase” in Jammu and Kashmir and “main sufferer of this menace is younger generation of society…[who are] being put on the peril of destruction”.
The accused Army personnel have been identified as Naib-Subedar Puran Singh and driver Anil Kumar, both residents of Reasi in Jammu; Sepoy Sushil Kumar, a resident of Jammu’s Samba district; and Naiks Waseem Ahmad Mir, Mohammad Shafiq Khan, and Ishfaq Ahmad Tanoli. All of them are posted in the 175 Engineering (Territorial Army) Wing headquartered in Panzgam area of Kupwara.
Four civilians, who have been arrested in the case, are Army porter Mashkoor Sheikh, Mohammad Yousaf Kothari, and Saleem Sheikh, all residents of Kupwara, and Mohammad Imran Teli, a resident of Bandipora district in north Kashmir.
The accused have been booked under Section 8 (production, possession, trade, etc of narcotic drugs or psychotropic substances), 20 (punishment for contravention in relation to the cannabis plant and cannabis), 27-A (punishment for consumption of any narcotic drug or psychotropic substance) and 29 (punishment for abetment and criminal conspiracy) under The Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985.
Except for Shafiq, all of them had applied for bail.
Objecting to the bail application, the prosecution told the court that the proceeds of the narcotics trade are being channelled for funding terror activists in Jammu and Kashmir and it was “necessary to conduct a fair and thorough investigation” into the case.
“The accused persons have tried to malign the image of the Army which is safeguarding the territory of the nation and combating narco-terrorism. The accused have not only jeopardized the security of the country but are instrumental in destroying the next generation of the nation,” a prosecutor representing the state, told the court.
