Drug peddler's shops build on govt land in Jammu demolished

Jammu, June 14: Three shops belonging to a drug peddler and allegedly built on government land were demolished in a joint operation by police and civil administration in Jammu on Saturday, police said.

The action against Mohd Sidiq alias Githa was taken under operation clean up after investigations revealed that he had illegally raised the property on the encroached government land and using ill-gotten money from the sale of drugs, Superintendent of Police (Jammu south) Ajay Sharma said.

He said Sidiq, a resident of Beli Charana in Nikki Tawi area, was recently booked in a case under Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act in Gandhi Nagar area.

This was the second such case registered against him as earlier a case was registered against him at Bakshi Nagar police station.

During a probe into these two cases, the SP said it came to light that he had illegally acquired property from drug trafficking and accordingly, the revenue department was consulted to start attachment proceedings against this property under relevant sections of the NDPS Act.

However, the revenue department informed that the property has been constructed on the encroached government land and accordingly, a combined operation was launched by police and civil administration to demolish the shops and retrieve the state land, the officer said.

Sharma, who was leading the drive, lauded the locals for their support and said the menace of drugs has reached a level of crisis and “everybody has to play a role to root out this evil”.

“We cannot do it alone, the people are requested to come forward and lend their support to tackle this problem,” he said.