Drug cases on rise amid pilgrim influx
Police intensify checking drives at inter-city and interdistrict border posts
HARIDWAR: Security agencies have traced a sudden spike in drug smuggling cases in Haridwar amid increase in number of pilgrims and tourists from across the country visiting the district for the Mahakumbh, officials said on Wednesday. Following the development, police are put on high alert.
About a dozen-odd drug peddlers have been nabbed by district police in the past few weeks as part of a special drive against the drug peddlers. With Mahakumbh fair going on, police have upped the checking drives at inter-district and intercity border posts.
On Tuesday from Sikandarpur Bhaiswal village in Bhagwanpur area near Roorkee, police seized 1.42 kg of smack from a house where accused Rashid and his wife Sahista used to sell them to prospective customers.
“The smack seized from the said village house is worth ₹50 lakh in the international market and we had been getting information regarding selling of smack in the area on the basis of which police carried out raid. Teams have been formed to nab the main accused Rashid,” said Superintendent of Rural Police Pramendra Dobhal.
The accused used to procure the smack from Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh and used to sell the contraband from their house only with many customers coming from nearby areas and highway too to procure the banned substance.
In another incident on Tuesday evening, a youth was arrested from Bhimgoda within a kilometre from Har-Ki-Pauri with 10.70 gm of smack which he had purchased from an unknown seller for personal consumption near Indira Gandhi Setu adjacent to Kumbh temporary camps.
In February, police nabbed two peddlers with ₹ 2 lakh worth smack at Rodibelwala just adjacent to Alaknanda Ganga ghat. The accused confessed of supplying to outer state people in Haridwar.
Haridwar district police superintendent Senthil Aboodai Krishan Raj said police were carrying out a drive against smack smugglers as a result of which several people involved in this illegal trade has been nabbed.