New Delhi, Aug. 18 -- The Supreme Court on Monday tightened the regime for grant of bail to foreign nationals caught with commercial quantities of drugs by ordering mandatory deposit of passports, two sureties for securing release and departmental proceedings against police, court officials and revenue staff in the event the sureties turn out to be fake.

A bench of justices Sanjay Karol and Augustine George Masih passed the order while dealing with a bail cancellation plea filed by Centre against a Nigerian national who was found to be an active member of a drug trafficking syndicate and who went absconding after details of surety and his local contact furnished by him turned to be fake.

Realising the gap in the system which permits for...