Drugs and Bullets: Punjab Drug Trafficking and the NDPS Act

The Lift Line

“However, cases registered differ from convictions and asset attachment differs from forfeiture.” (The Hindu, editorial)

Why This Editorial Matters for Your Exam

In the news: in an editorial on 15 October 2026, The Hindu argues that Punjab is caught between drug trafficking, vigilantism and crime syndicates that kill with ease. Its peg is the killing this week of anti-drug activist Parvinder Singh Jhota in Mansa district, who, according to The Hindu’s report, was shot after confronting a chemist over the alleged sale of illegal addictive substances. A joint action committee has called for a Statewide shutdown on 15 October.

This is an unsigned editorial, so it is the newspaper’s own view. It brings three exam themes together: organised crime and drug trafficking as a threat to internal security, substance use as a public health problem, and the limits of judging enforcement by arrest counts.

GS Paper 3: internal security; linkages of organised crime; drug trafficking; the role of social media in crime. GS Paper 2: State policy on drugs and public health, policing and public trust, and the demand for a central agency probe. It also feeds Essay topics on the rule of law and on youth and addiction.

For Prelims: the NDPS Act, 1985 (quantity tiers, Sections 27A, 37 and 64A, and Chapter VA on forfeiture), the PITNDPS Act, 1988, and the AIIMS national survey of substance use.

Background and Context

The events behind the editorial

Punjab’s anti-drug campaign: the official tallies

The campaign, ‘Yudh Nashian Virudh’, was launched in early 2025. Its figures count arrests and property action; they say nothing about convictions.

The legal framework: NDPS and PITNDPS

Attachment or freezing of property is an investigative step; forfeiture is the final loss of the property, and Chapter VA reserves it for the persons Section 68A(2) lists, which include the relatives and associates of traffickers. That is why the editorial’s distinction matters.

The health picture: the AIIMS survey

The Analysis

The editorial moves from two killings, to the system behind them, to what the State should measure and do.

1. Two killings, one pattern. The Hindu links the killing of Jhota, with which a local chemist has been charged after his allegedly illegal drug business came under threat, with the shooting of influencer Mad Sandhu in Amritsar earlier this month, which it describes as an alleged premeditated, transnational syndicate hit that used inter-State escape routes. Both events involved digital platforms, it notes, and “both events expose a dire gap in public safety”.

2. The trade and the gangs are intertwined. The alleged killer in Mansa was a local chemist, but the paper argues that the macro-level drug trade in Punjab is intertwined with gangster networks, with cross-border smuggling a key source of illicit funds. Add a string of targeted killings of police personnel and local politicians, and Punjab, in its words, is caught between local drug trafficking and “citizens resorting to vigilantism and crime syndicates carrying out assassinations with disquieting ease”. Some events, it adds, have raised suspicions of cross-border support and a demand to involve enforcement agencies.

3. A corridor and a market. Punjab’s location, the paper says, makes it an important entry point and market, and smugglers using multiple transport modes hamper the security apparatus. It cites the AIIMS survey to show opioid dependence in Punjab well above the national level; the survey’s official summary does place Punjab among the States with the highest share of population affected by opioid use.

4. Numbers that do not measure success. The paper cites the State campaign’s own claims, “68,850 arrests of alleged traffickers and the attachment or confiscation of assets valued Rs 319 crore”, and adds a caution: “cases registered differ from convictions and asset attachment differs from forfeiture.” A separate tally, given by the Punjab Health Minister at the campaign’s 500-day mark in July 2026, was 73,000 arrests and property worth Rs 847 crore confiscated and demolished; the two sets of figures count different things and are not comparable. Under the NDPS Act, forfeiture under Chapter VA applies only to the persons Section 68A(2) lists, so attachment is a step, not an outcome.

5. Why people back confrontation. Jhota’s hostile tactics, the paper notes, enjoyed public support, and “authorities need to examine why the people are overlooking formal reporting channels.” Vigilantism here is a symptom: citizens act on their own when they do not trust the formal system to act on what they report. Rebuilding public trust is therefore part of the anti-drug task, not separate from it.

6. What the State must do. Under its narcotics policy, the paper says, the State has to reduce the availability of harmful drugs, disrupt wholesale supply chains, identify corrupt facilitators and expand access to rehabilitative care. Alongside investigations into the coordination of targeted killings, an anti-trafficking strategy must probe the financing and logistics of networks, dismantle institutional collusion and better protect threatened individuals.

Data and Institutions Vault

Prelims-grade facts:

The NDPS Act, 1985:

• Quantity tiers: small, more than small but less than commercial, and commercial; commercial quantity draws 10 to 20 years’ rigorous imprisonment.
• Section 27A: financing illicit traffic and harbouring offenders; rigorous imprisonment of not less than 10 years, up to 20.
• Section 37: every offence is cognizable; for commercial quantity and Sections 19, 24 and 27A, bail needs the twin conditions.
• Section 64A: immunity from prosecution for addicts who volunteer for de-addiction (charges under Section 27 or small quantity).
• Chapter VA (Sections 68A to 68Y): forfeiture of illegally acquired property; inserted by Act 2 of 1989.
• Section 68A(2) lists whose property Chapter VA reaches: the convicted, arrested or PITNDPS-detained, and their relatives and associates.
• PITNDPS Act, 1988: preventive detention to prevent illicit traffic in drugs.

AIIMS survey (conducted during 2018, released February 2019):

• Opioids, national: current use 2.06%; about 0.55% of Indians need help for opioid use problems.
• Top States by share affected: Mizoram, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Manipur, along with Punjab, Haryana and Delhi.

Punjab’s ‘Yudh Nashian Virudh’ (launched early 2025):

• Day 300 (reported 26 December 2025): 41,881 drug smugglers arrested.
• Figures cited by the editorial: 68,850 arrests; assets valued Rs 319 crore attached or confiscated.
• Day 500 (Health Minister, reported 14 July 2026): 73,000 arrests; property worth Rs 847 crore confiscated and demolished.

⚠️ Watch the trap: attachment of property is not forfeiture: under Chapter VA of the NDPS Act, forfeiture is limited to the persons Section 68A(2) lists: those convicted of, arrested for or detained (under the PITNDPS Act, 1988) in connection with serious drug offences, and their relatives, associates and property-holders. An arrest count is not a conviction count. The AIIMS survey was conducted during 2018 and released in 2019. And the PITNDPS Act is a preventive detention law, separate from the NDPS Act’s punishments after trial.

The Debate

The Hindu’s case. Punjab’s drug trade, gang violence and vigilantism feed one another. Arrest and attachment figures look impressive but do not show whether supply has fallen, whether traffickers are convicted or whether illegal assets are actually forfeited. Unless the State follows the money, removes corrupt facilitators, treats users and protects those who speak up, killings like the one in Mansa will recur.

The other side. Enforcement numbers do show scale and intent, and convictions necessarily lag behind arrests. At the 500-day mark, Punjab’s Health Minister said the public had supported the drive by informing the police about drug smugglers. Visible action may deter small peddlers and reassure the public. And public support for confrontational tactics cuts both ways: the State cannot let citizens enforce the law themselves, so firm policing is part of the answer, not the problem.

The balanced verdict. Both sides want the same end: less supply, fewer users and no impunity for gangs. The difference is in what gets measured. A campaign that reports convictions, forfeitures, treatment outcomes and protection for witnesses alongside arrests would answer the editorial’s doubt and the government’s claim at once.

How to Think About This

Use a four-part test for any question on drugs and organised crime:

1. Supply: is the wholesale chain being disrupted, or only street-level peddlers arrested?
2. Money: are financing and logistics probed, and are illegal assets forfeited after due process?
3. Demand: is there enough rehabilitative care, and do users have a route to treatment rather than only prosecution?
4. Trust: do people report to the police, or take matters into their own hands?

Diagram-in-Words

How the editorial connects the drug trade, the killings and the response it wants.

Takeaway Box

• Core idea: Punjab is caught between drug trafficking, vigilantism and crime syndicates; arrest tallies are not results.
• Law: the NDPS Act, 1985 grades punishment by quantity; Chapter VA allows forfeiture of illegally acquired property; the PITNDPS Act, 1988 allows preventive detention.
• Numbers: the editorial cites 68,850 arrests and Rs 319 crore of assets attached or confiscated; the Health Minister’s 500-day tally (July 2026) was 73,000 arrests and Rs 847 crore; national current opioid use 2.06% (AIIMS survey, 2018).
• Mains use: GS3 internal security and organised crime; GS2 public health and policing; Essay on the rule of law.

Revision Flowchart

Sources: The Hindu, editorial, “Drugs and bullets”, 15 October 2026; The Hindu, report on the Mansa killing (Chandigarh bureau, October 2026); PTI via Outlook on the Mad Sandhu case (October 2026); The Statesman (December 2025) and News On AIR (July 2026) on the Yudh Nashian Virudh campaign; PIB, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, on the AIIMS report “Magnitude of Substance use in India” (February 2019); the NDPS Act, 1985 (Central Bureau of Narcotics text); UNI on the Punjab DGP appointment (October 2026). Related: anti-drug campaigns that advertise what they condemn.

Source: Drugs and Bullets: Punjab Drug Trafficking and the NDPS Act — Ujiyari.com | Free UPSC & State PCS Editorial Analysis