Karnataka govt forms anti-narcotic task force to combat drug menace in Bengaluru

Bengaluru: The Karnataka government ordered the formation of Anti-Narcotic Task Force (ANTF) to combat the rising menace of drugs in Bengaluru recently.

According to a government order issued on August 1, this task force, similar to the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), will be overseen by Director General and Inspector General of Police (DG&IGP) M A Saleem. The team will report to Pronab Mohanty, Director General of Police, Cyber Command.

The team will consist of four Additional Superintendents of Police and Assistant Commissioners of Police, two each, among the 10 newly formed roles. The task force will consist of 56 police staff, along with two police inspectors and four police sub-inspectors. The 56 officers have been taken away from the Anti-Naxal Force and assigned to the narcotics task force, the order read.

It also stated that the 43 Cyber, Economic and Narcotics (CEN) crime police stations in the state had been renamed as cyber crime police stations and had directed to register cases under the Information Technology (IT) Act and the BNS sections related to computer-related and cyber crimes.