In no mood to let the opportunity pass by, the Congress launched a massive attack on the state government on Monday after pictures of one of the accused—in the MD drug haul—with top ruling party leaders went viral on the internet.
A day after the Gujarat Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) and Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) raided a factory on the outskirts of Bhopal, leading to the discovery of the largest-ever Mephedrone lab in the country, the Opposition Congress accused the BJP of connivance.
The Congress attack came after pictures of one of the accused in the case, Harish Aanjana, with Deputy Chief Minister Jagdish Deora and BJP MP Sudhir Gupta went viral on the internet.
Aanjana was arrested from his native Mandsaur a few hours after the conclusion of the raids in Bhopal, which shocked enforcement agencies due to the sheer size of the operation.
Cornering the BJP, Congress claims that Aanjana is a member of the ruling party; the BJP, however, was quick in its dismissal of the charge, with state unit chief Vishnudutt Sharma categorically rebutting the Congress allegations."Not everybody with a party stole around the neck is a member of the BJP," said Sharma while talking to mediapersons, responding to queries put forth by the press.
Sharma's statement was surprising, considering the party tradition of welcoming members into its fold by placing the saffron stole around their necks.
With both political parties caught in a slugfest and exchanging allegations, the recent drug haul, leading to the discovery of over 900 kg of the synthetic MD drug, estimated to carry a value of a staggering Rs 1,814 crore in the international market, leaves several pertinent questions unanswered.
The BJP has ruled the state since 2003, but no major crackdown on the drug mafia has been launched by the state government despite repeated discoveries of small quantities of the synthetic substance on peddlers, which suggested that the state had either emerged as a market for MD or was being used as an ideally located logistics center.
In his counterattack on the Congress, Sharma was quick to bring up Delhi Pradesh Congress IT Cell chief Tushar Goyal, whose name had come up since the discovery of MD at several locations in the country. Sharma questioned the Congress's silence over Goyal's involvement in the drug racket.
He said that getting pictures clicked with a political leader does not mean that the person is associated with that leader, adding that those in public life should avoid such situations as they often lead to controversies.
Issuing an official statement to the media, the state government had said that the Bhopal Police Commissioner has launched a special anti-drug campaign, 'Operation Ankush,' under directives from Chief Minister Mohan Yadav, and arrested 22 people engaged in the illegal business of narcotics.
However, factually, the campaign in question was started in May 2023 when Shivraj Singh Chouhan was the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh.
Retired Superintendent of Police GK Pathak told The Pioneer that the main issue that surfaces in this illegal activity is the withholding of information by landlords. There are hundreds of plots in industrial areas of the city allotted by the Department of Industries that are being rented out, and unless it is made mandatory for landlords to furnish information regarding tenants or face financial penalties, it is highly unlikely that the situation will change, warned the former police officer.He informed that in a similar incident in 2008, a factory of illegal firearms was unearthed in the Govindpura Industrial area. In that case too, the factory owner had rented out the premises where naxalites were found manufacturing firearms.He also said that besides making the factory owner an accused in the case, the personnel of the local police station should also be taken to task.
