Police crack down drugs racket, 15 picked up

Jorhat, May 9 (UNI) Cracking the whip on a growing drugs racket, police have picked up at least 15 people in Jorhat in upper Asom.

Jorhat ASP Mukul Saikia said around 15 people, involved in consuming and peddling of drugs, had been detained from different corners of the district.

Under special instruction from Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, police had launched a massive crackdown in Jorhat, the Chief Minister's home district, to wipe out the menace.

Hinting that the administration was considering on reformative measures rather than on harsh punishment, the ASP said experts were being consulted to rehabilitate the drug addicts.

Meanwhile, the detainees were being interrogated to unearth details about bigger fish in the trade.

Close on the heels of the crackdown in upper Asom, a notorious drugs mafia, Ilalhi Sheikh, had surrendered before the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate in Dibrugarh on May three.

Sheikh was wanted under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Act.

Two days later, a close female associate of Sheikh, Juri Begum, was also arrested in Dibrugarh.

UNI