Berhampur: In the first biggest ever haul of ganja in Gajapati district, police seized around 2,000kg of the contraband, valued at around Rs 1 crore, and arrested two persons of Uttar Pradesh for allegedly smuggling the substance at Mandrabaju under the Adava police station limits in the district on Sunday.
“The contraband was concealed in a UP-registered truck laden with granite,” said Gajapati SP Jayaram Satapathy. The vehicle, along with the ganja, has been seized, he added. After procuring the ganja from across the district, the smugglers were transporting it to UP via Raipur, Chhattisgarh, when the police seized the contraband.
The accused duo, both residents of Aligarh, have been identified as Ravi Singh and Raju Singh, the driver and the helper of the truck, respectively.
Further investigation into the case is on, the police added. The massive seizure of the contraband has proved that Odisha still remains a major supplier of marijuana across the country. On August 23, the police seized around 2,149kg ganja from four places, while 700kg of the drug was seized from two places in the district on August 27. The SP added that crackdown on illegal ganja transportation from the district is one of the priority areas of the Gajapati police.
“Accordingly, we have instructed all the police stations to keep strict vigil on the illegal transportation of the ganja in their respective areas. The drive against illegal transportation of the contraband will continue,” he added. In a similar incident, the police seized around 306kg ganja, packed in six bags from roadside at Salaguda under the Gochhapada police station limits in Kandhamal district on Sunday. The accused persons fled the spot on seeing the police.
On Saturday, the intelligence wing of the excise department arrested two persons of Rajasthan while smuggling ganja from Ganjam district to Nagpur, Maharashtra, in a truck via Berhampur. Around 500kg of ganja, valued at around Rs 50 lakh along with the truck, was seized from the duo.
