400 opium plants found cultivated at Sonepat university; gardener arrested

A day after 140 opium plants were found on the university campus in Rohtak, the Sonepat police found 400 opium plants at a private university in Rajiv Gandhi Education City at Rai on Friday. The police have arrested a gardener for reportedly cultivating the opium plants on the university campus. An investigation is under way.

The accused has been identified as Sant Lal of Sultanpur district in Uttar Pradesh. He was working as a gardener in the university for a long time.

Narinder Singh Kadyan, DCP Crime and DCP West said that the crime unit-1, led by ASI Surender, received a tip-off about the cultivation of opium in a large quantity amid flowers on the campus of World University of Design (WUD).

The team raided the campus along with Drugs Control Officer Munshi Ram and an Assistant Project Officer of the Horticulture Department on Friday.

The team carried out a search operation and found opium plants cultivated illegally among the flowers. The team recovered a total of 400 opium plants which were three or four feet high and the total weight of the plants were around 40 kg, the DCP added.

Accused Sant Lal was arrested and produced in a court, which sent him on three-day police remand to investigate about the involvement of others, the DCP added.

Fresh cuts were found on the opium plants, which suggested that the plants were in active use, said the DCP.

The police team removed all the plants.

Following the directions of the Director General of Police (DGP), a special campaign against the drugs have been launched in the area to save the youths and students from drug menace and five-six universities have been inspected so far under this campaign.

DCP further emphasised that the cultivation of opium is illegal in Haryana. It was a serious matter that such a huge quantity of opium trees cultivated within the university campus, he said. The investigation in the matter is underway and the gardener is being grilled to get information about the people involved in illegally cultivation of opium with him, DCP Kadyan asserted.

The campaign would be continued especially in the education institutes to save students from drug abuse, the DCP maintained.