The Haryana Police on Sunday said it has secured detention orders for a notorious drug peddler under a law which allows preventive custody of an accused without bail for a year.

After 2008, this is the first such action taken in Haryana against a drug peddler under the stringent Prevention of Illicit Traffic in Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (PITNDPS) Act, said a statement issued by the police.

A dossier was submitted by Sonipat Superintendent of Police Himanshu Garg before a competent authority in Delhi which passed the orders to detain accused Rakesh, a resident of Rohna village, in the district jail for one year under the PITNDPS Act, it said.

Garg said the accused had been arrested for allegedly peddling more than 137 kg cannabis from Odisha.

The accused had also been booked in Delhi and Punjab in cases related to drug peddling. In these cases, he was found directly involved in smuggling narcotics from Odisha, he said.

Considering the background of the accused, the police gathered information and filed a detailed report before the competent authority in Delhi, seeking permission to book him under PITNDPS Act.

The proposal was scrutinised by a screening committee headed by Director General (DG) of Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) and comprising senior officers of the Ministry of Law and Justice, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, CBI and NCB, the statement said.

Based on facts, the screening committee found the proposal fit for issuance of detention orders and recommended the same to the competent authority, it added.

Accordingly, the authority passed the orders to detain Rakesh in Sonipat district jail for a year, it added.

All the district police chiefs have been directed to book drug peddlers under PITNDPS Act, the statement said, adding that this process will continue in future so that this menace is completely uprooted from the society.