Milligrams and Kilograms; Sikkim police faces embarassment after data entry blunder.
State government annually sends data on drug sezuire to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) and when looked into the heroine sezuire data of Sikkim state between 2018-2020 there seems to be a sudden surge in 2017 the quantity was zero but 15,000 kg were seized in 2018.
Again, zero seizures the next year were followed by a whopping 50,000 kg of heroin being seized in 2020. Which clearly seemed to be data entry blunder.
However, due to a data entry fallout, the data was reportedly miscalculated. In 2018, a seizure of 15,000 mg of heroin should have been entered as 0.015 kg. Similarly, in 2020, the 50,000 milligrams that were seized should have been recorded as 0.05 kg.
Instead, the MHA told parliament that Sikkim seized over 65,000 kg in these two years alone.
Sikkim Chronicle reached out to DIG range Tashi Wangyal Bhutia, Spokesperson Sikkim Police, he said, “We accept the blunder and enquiry has already been set up on the matter, we are trying to find out if it was Sikkim Police data entry fault or NCRB.”
Bhutia assured that once the enquiry is over departmental action will be taken against the offender.
As per the report published on The Wire, The issue was first taken up by Aravindakshan, editor-in-chief Sathiyam TV who sought information under the Right to Information (RTI) Act from the various paramilitary and police forces, investigating agencies and the Sikkim government.
After patching the information together, it was evident that the numbers did not add up.
“We asked the Sikkim police through an RTI application about who seized heroin in 2018 and 2020. The answer revealed that so much heroin was not seized in the state of Sikkim,” Aravindakshan told The Wire.
This seemingly shows that even a blunder of the smallest points, decimal points in this case, can create national havoc, let alone embarrassment to the state. Now, Sikkim Police have taken responsibility and assured justice to be served, which will only be unveiled as this enquiry concludes.