Taking a serious view of the concerns expressed by the High Court of Punjab and Haryana over the manner in which final reports are being filed by the Prosecution in drug related offences, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Thursday directed the Advocate General to pursue the matter in right earnestness.Acting on the Chief Minister’s directives, AG Atul Nanda has written a D.O letter to Director, Department of Prosecution & Litigation, asking him to call for a report from the various Districts and ascertain the factual position on ground as regards this.Describing it as an issue of “grave concern” the AG has also sought the comments and suggestions of the Director, Vijay Singla, on the issue “so that the matter may be taken forward at the earliest, preferably within two weeks.”The letter is marked to the Chief Secretary Karan Avtar Singh and Additional Chief Secretary (Home) NS Kalsi, apart from DGP Suresh Arora and ADGP, STF (Drugs), Harpreet Singh Sidhu.
The letter refers to yesterday’s incident when, while the Chief Minister was attending his hearing on Election Petition before the High Court of Punjab and Haryana yesterday, Justice Daya Chaudhary had called upon the AG as well as the Chief Minister “to look into the manner in which final reports are being filed by the Prosecution in drug related offences, more particularly without attaching the laboratory reports supporting the charges made against the accused.” The Court was of the view that such reports are often not attached to/form part of the final report which is filed before it.Soon after the issue was brought to his notice by the Court, the Chief Minister directed the AG to personally look into the matter and ensure that the system is streamlined to ensure that there are no such loopholes in the Prosecution’s case before the Court, particularly in drug-related matters.