Kohima: Nagaland’s Rising People’s Party (RPP) suggested the state police hand over the case of the arrested Northeast drug kingpin Bahar Uddin to the National Investigation Agency (NIA) so as to avoid any political interference with the case.
The RPP, through a statement on Sunday said the arrest of the “Druglord of the Northeast” is a timely reminder to the Naga people about the kind of government that should elected.
“Bahar Uddin is a creation of the lawlessness and corruption which has come to define the state under the leadership of Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio since he took over the helms of the state in 2003,” the RPP accused.
As per the RPP, the “War on Drugs”, declared by Nagaland Police under the initiative of the present DGP Rupin Sharma, has finally culminated in the kingpin being arrested, though the war may continue for some time.
“It must also be quickly added that the ‘War on Drugs” is the sole idea and initiative of Nagaland police led by the DGP. It has nothing to do with PDA policy, for as far as Law and order and rule of law are concerned the state government has long vanished – since time immemorial,” the party alleged.
The party observed that Bahar Uddin had been running his drug empire for decades operating out of Dimapur. “It can be safely assumed that he was given ‘protection’ by corrupted politicians and police, and ‘legitimized elements’ operating freely in Dimapur,” the party noted.
They said that Bahar Uddin must have started ‘singing’ in police custody by now, and so it was important that the Nagaland police reveal the results of its preliminary investigation, particularly the names of those persons and organisations who are on his payroll.
As the police have not divulged any details to date, RPP said that there are speculations that the Nagaland police are under some sort of political pressure to dilute the case.
“Therefore, under the circumstance, the police may well do to hand over the case to the NIA which at least should negate the cloud of political interference,” it said.
The RPP challenged the PDA government to attach the accused person’s properties under the relevant section of the law dealing with drugs and psychotropic substances with immediate effect.
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