On February 25, Tamil Nadu’s ruling DMK general secretary Duraimurugan issued a short note announcing the immediate expulsion of Jaffer Sadiq, who held the post of deputy organiser of the DMK’s NRI wing for Chennai-West. Mr. Duraimurugan urged cadres not to have any truck with Mr. Sadiq, who is also a film producer, who had “brought disrepute” to the party.
A day earlier, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) along with the Delhi Police Special Cell had busted Mr. Sadiq’s alleged links with an international drug cartel. The party clearly foresaw the potential damage that Mr. Sadiq’s continued association with the DMK could cause in an election season. It did not help that videos and photos of Mr. Sadiq with Chief Minister M.K. Stalin, his minister-son Udhayanidhi Stalin, and Director General of Police (DGP) Shankar Jiwal emerged. While this does not establish any direct complicity on the part of the top leadership and the DGP, it has left the government and the ruling party red-faced.
The pace at which events related to the case have since unfolded will reinforce the DMK’s fears. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has converted this into a key issue in the Lok Sabha polls. “Today, I want to speak about a serious issue and share my concern. I want every father and mother in Tamil Nadu to understand my concern about the future of your children... In Tamil Nadu, in the name of rave parties, drugs are distributed. It is worrying... If you strengthen the BJP, action will be taken against Tamil Nadu’s enemies. This is Modi’s guarantee,” he declared at a campaign in Chennai.
This guarantee could potentially see the NCB going after some top guns. With the arrest of Mr. Sadiq in Delhi last week, the NCB, an otherwise discreet agency, has been liberal in making information public. The agency has declared that he spearheaded a network, which sourced pseudoephedrine, a precursor chemical that is used in the manufacture of Methamphetamine, a dangerous and highly addictive synthetic drug, and trafficked it to Australia, New Zealand, and Malaysia in the guise of food grade cargo. It is believed that the drug syndicate has sent 45 consignments containing about 3,500 kg of pseudoephedrine over the past three years to various countries.
According to NCB Deputy Director General Gyaneshwar Singh, Mr. Sadiq revealed that the “ill-gotten money” was also used to fund a Tamil movie, Mangai, and to construct a hotel in Chennai. He stated that “evidence of some political funding has emerged”. The agency is “following the drug money trail” and all those found to have violated the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985, would be booked, he added.
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Over the past two years, the Stalin government has responded to the Opposition’s sustained campaign that drug supply is rampant in Tamil Nadu by launching periodic anti-drug drives. But in this case, the party’s top leadership continues to maintain an uneasy silence, even as the Opposition has stepped up its attack.
The Leader of the Opposition and AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K. Palaniswami submitted a memorandum to Governor R.N. Ravi, urging him to call for an independent enquiry considering the “closeness” of the accused with Mr. Stalin and the DGP.
The Governor chipped it saying, “Recent interdictions of sizeable quantities of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances and apprehension of members of international drug cartels in Tamil Nadu and other places by Central agencies have confirmed our worst fears — the prevalence of drugs in our State.”
The State Law Minister, S. Regupathy, charged the BJP government at the Centre of pressing the NCB into action “to defame and intimidate the DMK”. He also accused Mr. Singh of interacting with the media before completing the investigation “only to provide political mileage for the BJP during the elections.”
Given the complex nature of the case, it is difficult to take these various statements at face value. There is no doubt that drugs are available in Tamil Nadu, as in most parts of the country, and that the DMK leadership and the government have failed to check Mr. Sadiq’s criminal antecedents before granting him a position in the DMK. Mr. Stalin needs to speak up on the issue. At the same time, the NCB must pursue this case on merit without displaying an overzealousness to paint Tamil Nadu as the drug capital.
