A home guard of the Odisha police died in an attack by cannabis smugglers when a police team tried to stop villagers carrying ganja in Malkangiri district on Saturday.
The incident took place in the Nuaguda forest near Mathili area — close to Andhra Pradesh.
More than 100 villagers were carrying the banned cannabis in slings as a police team intercepted them. During the scuffle, the miscreants hit on the head of home guard identified Banabasi Maharana. He later succumbed to grievous head injuries. Taking advantage of the darkness, the smugglers fled.
A huge amount of contraband was transported through Malkangiri in the past. In January this year, the driver of a tractor reportedly carrying ganja tried to run over a home guard near Chitrakonda. Later, the police deployed at the check post chased and seized it. They, however, could not arrest the driver as he fled.
This year, the State police have made a record seizure of the ganja, also known as weed and marijuana. Southern Odisha districts are used as corridor for smuggling ganja.
On September 2, the Special Task Force arrested two persons carrying 157 kg ganja in Koraput district. The STF had seized 1,046 kg contraband from a small van on August 21. Two days before it, they had nabbed two persons from Bihar carrying 474 kg, both in Koraput.
“Over 630 quintals has been seized. The current year’s seizure has already surpassed annual seizures made in 2019 and 2018. In 2018, we had seized 523.89 quintals ganja and in 2019, it went up to 618.15 quintals,” said Abhay, DGP, recently.
