Chandigarh, Jun 16 (UNI) Punjab BJP President Sunil Jakhar today said it is imperative to "follow the money’ to track down the powerful end beneficiaries in the drug money trail if the state government wants to establish its credibility and resolve to uproot the drug mafia.

In a letter to Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, the state BJP chief urged him to seek the intervention of the honorable Punjab and Haryana High Court Chief Justice Sheel Nagu for setting up an appropriate 'time-bound' probe by a credible agency, or even a multi-agency probe, under the supervision of the Chief Justice to uncover the end beneficiaries in the drug money trail.

“Arresting thousands of drug addicts and small players won’t make any difference to root out the drug menace. The flow of money has to be established to catch the big fish and arrest the end beneficiaries, be it politicians across party lines or officials. Without this, the government’s claim of its fight against drugs in Punjab remains a farce,” Jakhar said.

He added that the drug cartels in Punjab cannot thrive without some or the other kind of patronage which has been there for some time now.

Jakhar said the recovery of narcotics in Punjab goes into several thousands of crores of rupees which underlies the rot that exists. At the same time the fortunes of so many Punjab politicians have turned in the last few years. This raises a lot of stench and suspicion on the source of funding.

Without naming anyone he said, “MLAs who would come on cycles now own luxury cars worth many crores. Many have several acres of farm houses”. Since the quantum of money involved in drug money trail is colossally huge, it reeks of money laundering which can be probed by the Enforcement Directorate, or as deemed fit by the Chief Justice, since money laundering could be huge and involving the high and mighty.

Merely filing of mandatory IT returns by MLAs and others is not enough as there is a clear mismatch between their claims and the ground reality," he asserted.

Ministers, MLAs, party presidents, party in-charge and leaders of all hues should be a part of the investigation by the agencies, Jakhar said, adding that he as BJP president, would volunteer to be the first to be probed as a mark of his and his party’s sincerity and earnestness.

“The CM should on priority write to the honourable Chief Justice for initiating a probe by any agency deemed appropriate. The probe should be under the able supervision of the Chief Justice, without which the flow of money to end beneficiaries of drug trade will not be possible,” the BJP president said.

The BJP president said it would be prudent to keep the role of the Judiciary and the Executive separate and independent, which is why the CM should write to the Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court under whose supervision this probe to establish the flow of money in the drug money trail can be initiated.

“Not just drug money trail, the trail of illicit money from mining and sand mafia also needs to be probed and the guilty brought to the book”, Jakhar said. UNI GS SSP