ANTF likely to be empowered with police station powers

The Karnataka government is mulling over empowering the recently formed Anti Narcotics Task Force (ANTF) with the powers of police station.

This will enable the ANTF to book cases, make arrests and carry out criminal investigations in drug cases. Presently, it doesn’t have an independent head and is only restricted to review and coordinate drug case probes.

Formed as per a recent mandate of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), all States and Union Territories have now formed the ANTFs. While many States have empowered them to register cases and investigate, Karnataka is yet to grant such powers to the ANTF.

The EAGLE force of Telangana Police, ANTF, Delhi Police, Kerala Anti-Narcotics Special Action Force spearheading Operation Toofan against narcotics in the State, have made significant progress in fighting the menace.

Presently, Additional Director-General of Police (Law and Order), Karnataka, holds additional charge of the ANTF, Karnataka. It presently reviews probes into narcotics cases every month, apart from coordinating investigations across multiple jurisdictions. There has been no independent chief for the ANTF in the State till date.

However, it is felt that this is not enough. The State police have submitted a proposal to the State government to grant the ANTF police station powers. Highly placed sources confirmed to The Hindu that this would likely happen soon. The State government recently unveiled special campaigns to fight drug menace and the Chief Minister has stressed on a zero tolerance policy for drugs in the State.

Gaps in probes

Investigation into narcotics cases in the State have been plagued by several issues. In most cases, the arrests stop at the level of peddlers and not being able to build the chain to suppliers and producers of drugs.

For instance, the Bengaluru City police did not arrest a single drug producer in 2024 and 2025, The Hindu reported on December 31, 2025. Across Karnataka, the State police arrested 90 ‘producers’, mostly ganja growers, and not a single synthetic drug producer. During the same period, the Maharashtra police busted three synthetic drug manufacturing units in Bengaluru and one in Mysuru, building the chain to them after arrest of peddlers.

Investigators need to do a follow-up and build the chain to the source of the narcotics and bust that, to effectively fight the menace. This process is highly painstaking and needs dedicated resources, which is not possible by personnel working other cases, law and order duties as well, a senior official said.

“It is unfair to expect such work from personnel already multitasking under severe human resource shortage. This needs a dedicated unit,” the officer said.

An empowered ANTF can build intelligence to map narcotics supply networks operating across the States in the country and even outside. “We have not even begun to do such work. If the State is serious in fighting the menace, we need to put in such resources,” the officer said.

Moreover, investigations also suffer from a lack of good evidence, due process during investigations not being followed leading to low conviction rate. The ANTF probing these cases, armed with a dedicated forensics unit, will plug this gap as well, it is argued.

“In the police force, unless a unit has power to book cases and investigate them independently, it is unlikely it will work effectively. The MHA mandates the ANTF should be headed by an officer of ADGP rank. Without police station powers, no officer will be interested to head such a unit as well,” another senior officer said.