6,700-kg poppy husk recovered in Sikar dist, five smugglers arrested
DRUG HAUL Accused confess to working for a person who bought the drugs from Mandsaur (MP) and Chittorgarh
JAIPUR: The special operations group (SOG) of Rajasthan police on Sunday raided a house in Khandela town of Sikar district and recovered 6,700 kg lanced poppy husk, police said.
Five members of a smuggling gang were arrested in the incident, but kingpin managed to escape, they added.
Additional director general of police (ADGP) Anil Paliwal said that the SOG was receiving i nf o r mation i n t he r e c e nt months that drugs were being smuggled in Sikar and nearby districts.
A special team was constituted to verify the information. On late Saturday night, SOG received a tip-off that a huge consignment of lanced poppy husk was kept in a house in Khandela town of Sikar district.
“A team was rushed to Khandela in Sikar district to raid the house. 320 sacks of plastic were recovered from four rooms of a two-storey building and trucks parked inside a warehouse made up of tin on the premises. When the sacks were checked, a total of 6.7 tonnes of lanced poppy husk was recovered,” said Paliwal.
The five accused arrested under relevant sections of tej NDPS Act were identified as Gajanand Sharma (45), native of
Dausa district, Hansraj Verma (28), Vinod Sharma (21), Suresh Sharma (25) and Kailash Meena (30) alias Raju, natives of Sikar district.
“The accused confessed that they had brought the consignment of drugs from a person identified as Taufeq Bhati. He would buy the restricted drugs from Mandsaur district in MP and Chittorgarh in Rajasthan and store in the two-storey house in Sikar. Further, they would g r i nd t he procured lanced poppy husk and smuggle it to bordering state of Punjab,” added Paliwal.
The officer further said that Bhati had taken the house on rent from which lanced poppy husk was recovered. He has been arrested in past also in the cases of NDPS. SOG is trying to trace his location and would be arrested soon.
The district special teams (DST) working in coordination with teams of special operations group (SOG) and anti-terror squad (ATS) to crack a whip on organized crime from last three months.
The organized crime includes illicit drug smuggling, arms smuggling, sand mafia, human trafficking supply of adulterated food, illicit activities on state and national highways. vehicle thefts, fake insurance racket, fake currency, crimes on social media, crime in medical sectors, property mafias, cow a nd livestock s muggling, encroachment on government land, blackmailing racket, fake candidate’s racket and others.