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Police yet to register case against Jaswant Singh

JAIPUR: Three days after the Special Court on the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act in Jodhpur directed the Rajasthan police to register cases against the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Jaswant Singh, and nine others on a complaint of misuse of opium, no FIR has been filed in the case so far.

The reason given by the police for non-compliance of the court order till Wednesday evening was that the order papers had not reached them.

The Special Judge, Bhawani Shankar Kumawat, acting on a complaint from a Jodhpur citizen, Om Prakash Vishnoi, that opiate was served to guests -- who included Rajasthan Cabinet Ministers Ghanshyam Tiwari, Narpat Singh Rajvi and Madan Dilwar-- by Mr. Jaswant Singh at a get-together at his ancestral house at Jassol in Barmer district on October 31, had asked the police on Monday to register cases at the Balotra police station in Barmer district.

“We have not yet registered any case on the alleged misuse of opium at the residence of Mr. Singh,” Jalam Singh Chouhan, Station House Officer of Balotra police station said when contacted on phone.

“We are yet to receive the court order in this regard,” he said.

“We have been told that the court has sent it by post. It all depends on how much time the post takes,” Mr. Chouhan added.

“The police authorities could have sent someone from Balotra to Jodhpur to collect the court order,” noted Mallam Singh Choudhary, counsel for the complainant, talking from Jodhpur.

“I checked with the court staff. They told me the order was sent by registered post on Monday itself. By all means it should have reached today (Wednesday)”, he observed.

Considering the feud between Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje and the Cabinet Ministers and BJP leaders involved in the case, the Congress, the main Opposition in Rajasthan, is keeping a discreet silence, perhaps helping the rival party factions to fight it out.

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