Police Seek Strict Legal Deterrence To Combat Smuggling Of Chitta

Shimla
Himachal Pradesh Police has sought stringent provisions for stricter legal deterrence to stop smuggling of drugs especially chitta in intermediate quantity in the state.
The illicit trade of chitta (adulterated heroin) has increased manifold in the state recently, with the police seizing 11.5 kilogram of the banned drug and arresting 1,164 people in 738 cases last year. This year, till April 30, as many as 667 people were arrested in 457 cases and 6.39 kg of chitta was recovered, police officials said, adding the drug peddlers are smuggling the adulterated heroin in the state in consumable and intermediate quantities in order to escape punishment.
The consumable quantity of heroin is 5 gram and the commercial quantity is 250 gram. The majority of chitta is smuggled in consumable or intermediate quantities (5– 250 gram) to escape punishment as consumable and intermediate quantities are bailable, police said.
In 2020, a total of 748 people were arrested in 453 cases and 6.71 kg of the synthetic drug was seized. Financial investigations and confiscation of proceeds of crime is the need of the hour and harbouring and concealing drug peddlers should also lead to five years imprisonment, according to the communication. In 2018, the then BJP government had passed the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) bill recommending the Union government to make all offences under the NDPS Act as non-bailable. Chitta (diacetylmorphine), a semi-synthetic opioid, mainly derived from heroin, is highly dangerous and lethal as the consumption increases with passage of time and an overdose could even result in death, former director of State Forensic Science Laboratory Arun Sharma said.