Woman, son & nephew held with 26-kg opium

Tribune News Service

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Jalandhar, January 6

The city police on Wednesday arrested three drug peddlers, including a woman, and seized 26-kg opium from them. The peddlers had hidden the drug consignment in the two stepneys of the vehicle they were traveling in.

The accused have been identified as Poonam Devi Rao (40), her son Krishna Rao (19) of Jamshedpur and her nephew Raja Kumar Bhagat (29), a resident of East Singhbhum, Jharkhand.

Commissioner of Police Gurpreet Singh Bhullar said CIA staff-1 head Harminder Singh got a tip-off that the accused were traveling in a silver Sumo (JH05-AP-8743) to deliver a consignment of opium to an Amritsar-based dealer on Wednesday. Following this, a check-post was set up at Pragpur under the supervision of ACP Major Singh and the cops stopped the vehicle.

“The police party, including women sleuths, checked the Sumo and found two stepneys (spare tyres). After both tyres were opened, the cops recovered 26-kg opium from one of the spare tyres, which was packed into 26 small plastic bags. Subsequently, the cops arrested the accused and a case under Sections 18, 61, and 85 of the NDPS Act was registered against them at the Cantonment police station,” Bhullar said.

Poonam Devi Rao has reportedly been delivering opium in Amritsar from Jharkhand for the past six months along with her son and her nephew after getting the consignment from Jharkhand-based drug smugglers. While her son Krishna Rao is studying in Class XII, her nephew is a street food vendor.

The Commissioner said the accused would be produced in local courts and taken on remand for further interrogation.