Drugs case: High court refuses anticipatory bail to Raj Jit

The Punjab and Haryana high court dismissed anticipatory bail plea of sacked assistant inspector general Raj Jit Singh Hundal, an accused in a drug smuggling case, observing that he might indulge in threatening witnesses. Referring to initiation of criminal case against him following opening of sealed cover reports on drugs by the high court, the bench said it would be a miscarriage of justice that at the end of it and on the investigation conducted by the senior officers, the petitioner is granted the benefit of anticipatory bail, especially in view of the fact that high court itself had in March given liberty to the state to take action on the said reports. Running with hare and hunting with the hounds: HC The court further observed that it had come on record that he had acquired expensive properties around Chandigarh, when he was posted in Tarn Taran, facing the largest number of matters under the NDPS Act, is serious matter of concern for the health and safety of young generation to save them from drug menace and which has already been consuming the precious time of the high court. “Apparently, instead of being at the forefront to break the nexus of the smugglers and drug trade, the petitioner seems to have been indulging in the trade of drugs and it is on that account, his role seriously needs to be investigated as apparently he has been “running with hare and hunting with the hounds,” it said It further remarked that the probe against him cannot be curtailed while granting any interim protection to him who himself is a “well seasoned customer” and granting any such benefit would lead to curtailing the right of the investigating officers to get to the bottom of the “sordid story” of drug trafficking whereby involvement of the police officials in pushing innocent persons into false cases had been uncovered.