Bucket of cold water after a hot shower : Stop the CBI alibi
- Sangai Express Editorial :: July 17, 2013 -

A bucket of cold water after a hot shower. All the hype and now this.

The State Government should stop pulling wool over the eyes of the public with the CBI alibi.

In granting bail to four of the seven accused in the Pallel drug seizure case of February 24, 2013, lies the pathetic story of the State police in failing to prepare a charge sheet.

Matter referred to the CBI is the alibi that the Government will come up with to explain the failure to prepare the charge sheet.

Not acceptable under any yardstick.

Sounds more like a cover up attempt to shield some high and mighty players behind the screen.

The argument is this. Even if the CBI has not yet responded to the intimations of the State Government to take over the case, there is no reason why the State police should not have prepared its own charge sheet, in the interregnum.

What if the CBI finally refuses to take up the case ?

Will this mean that the State police will start from scratch, dating back to more than six months, a time long enough for evidences to disappear or more correctly to tamper with evidences ?

The Pallel drug seizure case was more than a case of drugs being confiscated while being transported to the border town of Moreh.

It was and is still the largest drug haul, the worth of the contraband stuff estimated at about Rs 25 crore in the market.

It is not only about the drugs being found packed inside a vehicle in which a senior Army officer was travelling.

It was this, yes, but in a way it was also something much more.

It was some sort of an expose’ on the involvement of big fishes in the lucrative drug trade.

No small players will have the resources and the means to smuggle in drugs worth Rs 25 crore and no small fry would have the gumption to carry such a huge consignment along the Imphal-Moreh route, which is choc-a-bloc with check posts and security arrangements.

There could be a design in the ‘awaiting a response from the CBI’ line which has been trotted out from the side of the State Government and this bluff should be called.

It is not about an Army officer, though this point may be significant. It is not about the son of a sitting Congress MLA nor about a senior officer of Indigo airline.

In all probability, the six arrested at Pallel on February 24 , would not have been much more than couriers. The bigger fishes, the men patronising the drug trade still remain behind the curtain, their mask firmly in place.

All the more reason to suspect that the State Government may have been falling back on the CBI alibi to buy time and in the process protect the drug barons or the cartel, whose network must surely be wide.

It is this which should be taken note of. Bail, of course, does not mean that the accused have been let off the hook.

The case is still there and will go on, but what is disturbing and unacceptable is the seeming casual approach of the Government towards the case.

This is not how cases as sensitive and high profile as the Pallel drug bust should be handled. Seen against this backdrop, there must be a reason why the State Government has not officially stated anything on the communication with the CBI or the Union Home Ministry.

It is only the media, utilising their own resources and contacting their sources which have been feeding some information to the public, on the status of the case, vis-a-vis the communication or the intimation sent by the State Government to the Centre.

The Chief Minister may have taken the matter seriously, if the report that he has personally written to the Prime Minister to let the CBI take over the case is any indication.

But as things have unfolded, this is just not enough. Asking the CBI to take over the case should not mean that the State police should sleep over the matter.

Will the CBI be able to make any headway if it does not receive necessary inputs from the local police ?

Looking at how things have unfolded, it will not be surprising if the State police have nothing to provide the CBI if and when their men come to Imphal to investigate the case.

Time to pile on the pressure on the State Government.