Police destroys 12k illegally grown poppy plants in Kullu

Kullu, April 17

Kullu SP Kartikeyan Gokulachandran said the police had recovered and destroyed 12,732 poppy plants cultivated illegally in Jhaniyar village of the Banjar sub-division today.

He added that two separate cases under Section 18 of the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act had been registered against unknown persons and further investigation was underway. The SP said the police had seized 37,570 poppy plants and 170 gm of opium so far this year.

The SP said regular patrolling was being carried out to curb the drug menace in the valley. He urged the people to share information about drugs and help the police in the fight against drug menace. He added that the identity of the informers would be kept secret and their security would be the responsibility of the police.

Drug smugglers have adopted the modus operandi to cultivate poppy and cannabis plants in remote locations, mostly forestland, and hire labourers to extract the contrabands so that even if the police locates the plantation and recovers the harvest, the kingpin generally never comes into the picture and manages to evade the law. A legal expert said in some cases, it was difficult to establish the cultivator even if the illegal cultivation was found on private land.