Black Sunday for Army or Black Sheep? The Pallel episode
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: February 25, 2013 -

The three vehicles and the drugs consignment and the two number plates on the Bolero in which the Col was travelling :: Pix - TSE

Not exactly setting the jigsaw pieces into places but the pattern is somewhat clear.

An executive from an airline and a senior Army officer.

A near perfect cocktail to ensure the safe and uninterrupted transit of contraband stuff, drugs in this case.

Who better placed than an official of an airline to ensure the transhipment of contraband item by air and who better placed than a senior Army officer to beat the numerous security check posts put up along the route from Imphal to Moreh.

Officially the word is not yet out, but the worth of the huge consignment of drugs seized near Pallel check post on February 24 has been pegged anywhere between Rs 20 and Rs 40 crore.

The involvement of big fishes in drug smuggling has been more or less confirmed, though it may not be altogether right to jump the gun and conclude that the said two officials were indeed involved in smuggling the drugs.

Let the Court decide that. What however is true is the fact that the police did seize the drug consignment from three vehicles in which the two officials, one from an airline and the other from the Army, were travelling.

Unfortunate for the Army as an establishment and unfortunate for the airline too, but fortunate for the people and the system as a whole and here a pat on the back of the police, Thoubal police in particular, is in line.

Keep up the good work.

The possible involvement of other, bigger fishes in this particular case cannot be ruled out and it is this the police should keep in mind and it is this which the public too should not forget.

Not jumping the gun, but there is every possibility that this was not the first time that the two officials have been involved or were sitting in vehicles which carried drugs and other contraband items.

Trial by media is not at all desirable. It is not their job.

However comment, it must, when such a case comes up and if in the process it influences public opinion, then take it as part of the business of dispensing one’s duty.

Let the case go to its logical conclusion and let it also appear that indeed the case is being investigated and probed without any undue interference from the side of the Army.

It could be a case of a black sheep or it could be a case of an innocent man being caught in the wrong vehicle ! But what stands true is the fact that it is the image of the Army which has taken a beating at the moment.

It is this which the Army authority and the Defence Ministry should be concerned about.

A tarnished image is certainly not what the Army needs at this point of time, especially in a place where it is engaged in counter-insurgency operations under the much maligned Armed Forces Special Powers Act.

Assurance of strict disciplinary action has come from the Defence Spokesperson at Delhi, but it will need more than tough talk to undo the damage.

Innocent until proven guilty is the dictum that the country’s judiciary follows, but what has been established beyond an iota of doubt is the fact that the Army officer, a Colonel in this case, was found travelling in a vehicle which was packed with contraband drugs.

An open and shut case ? Or is there something more. Let the Court decide.