3 held, 810 kg ganja seized

Vizianagaram: Vizianagaram police seized 810 kg of ganja worth Rs 40.5 lakh and arrested three at Kottakki check-post under Ramabadrapuram police station on Friday.

They seized a lorry bearing Maharashtra registration number, two Bolero vehicles bearing Telangana and Andhra Pradesh registration numbers, four mobile phones and Rs 7,405 cash. Bobbili DSP P Srinivasa Rao informed that Ramabadrapuram police set up a special check-post at Kottakki Junction to curb ganja smuggling through the district. Hukum Solanki and Anil Solanki of Madhya Pradesh and Jyothi Bhusan Behera of Odisha formed into a gang along with six others to smuggle ganja from Odisha to Madhya Pradesh.

They procured ganja on Andhra-Odisha Border (AOB) and were moving to various parts of the State by setting up fake number plates to the vehicles as well as police name plates.

As a part of this, they procured 810 kg of ganja in Odisha and transporting it to Madhya Pradesh in a Lorry and Bolero vans. They have been moving the ganja under the cover of coal. Based on reliable information, Ramabhadrapuram and Bobbili CI K Narayanarao and Ramabhadrapuram SI V Prasadarao stopped the vehicle at Kottakki junction and conducted checking.

They found ganja under the coal load and launched the investigation. They also identified two other Bolero vehicles which belong to the same gang and seized 810 kg of ganja. DSP P Srinivasarao said, “As per our preliminary investigation, nine-member gang was moving ganja from Odisha to Madhya Pradesh through various vehicles with fake number plates. They have also been using police name plate to escape from the checking. We have seized the ganja and arrested the three main accused. We have launched man-hunt to catch the remaining six accused. A case was registered.”