300-kg marijuana seized in Paonta Sahib village

Tribune News Service

Solan, May 31

The Paonta Sahib police seized 303.056 kg of marijuana in the state from a truck at Shivpur village on the Paonta Sahib-Puruwala road in Sirmaur district, at 2:40 am on Monday.

As per the police, it is sold for Rs 50,000 per kg, while good quality contraband fetches even higher returns.

Bir Bahadur, DSP, Paonta Sahib, who monitored the entire seizure said Vijay Raghuvanshi, SHO, Puruwala, stopped a truck for checking and during its search, 31 parcels wrapped with brown cellotape were found. They contained 303.056 kg of marijuana. It emits a strong odour, so an attempt was made to escape detection by wrapping tape around it, the DSP said.

The police got a tip-off about the contraband being transported in a truck, and in a bid to arrest the culprits, a well-planned strategy was adopted.

Three local youth, Yusaf (32), a resident of Upperli Bhangani, Kadar Ali (43) of Singhpura and Tohid Ali (30) of Upperli Bhangani had been arrested with the contraband.

During investigation, it was revealed that the contraband had been brought from Tripura.

A case was registered under the NDPS Act and further probe was under way.

The marijuana was to be supplied to all northern states, including Uttarakhand, Punjab, Himachal, Jammu and Kashmir, UP and Haryana.

This is the third such major drug seizure by the Paonta Sahib police in the last one year. Earlier, 1,300 kg of poppy husk was seized in two cases by the Puruwala police.

Three arrested

• A truck was stopped for checking and 31 parcels wrapped with brown cellotape were found.
• They contained 303.056 kg of marijuana.
• Three local youth have been arrested
• The contraband was brought from Tripura