On the evening of October 20, a Jammu and Kashmir Police team from R S Pura Police Station picked up a 26-year-old villager who was allegedly lying near a ‘ditch’ in Kotli Mirdian village in Suchetgarh tehsil. The village is close to the India-Pakistan international border.

The young man, identified as Sunny, was “barely conscious” and “disoriented” when the police found him. “We saw him lying near a ditch. We brought him along,’’ Station House Officer, R S Pura, Vikram Singh said. “It was a routine procedure for us. Any person found in an inebriated condition has to undergo a medical test to establish the cause,’’ he said.

Once he “sobered up”, Singh said, Sunny admitted that he had consumed ‘ chitta ’ (heroin). “We wanted to know who supplied him the drugs. We were hoping for a clue that would lead us to the dealer,’’ the officer said.…