Police in Akole, in Maharashtra’s Ahilyanagar district, raided a field in Washere shivar, the farmland attached to the village, after receiving information that cannabis plants were being cultivated and tended behind a dodka crop, a gourd grown as a vegetable.[1] A police party led by police inspector Sandeep Koli entered the field.[2] There they found cannabis plants that had been planted and nurtured in the dodka field.[2] Police seized the plants and green cannabis leaves, material that Akole police valued at Rs 15,36,000, or 15.36 lakh rupees.[1]

They took Vijay Raghunath Gaje, a vatakari, or tenant farmer, from Washere, into custody.[2] A case was registered against Gaje at Akole police station.[2] He had grown the dodka crop on farmland in the shivar.[2] Gaje was produced before the Akole court, which sent him to four days’ police custody.[1]

Akole police sub-inspector Sandeep Hazare is investigating the case under police inspector Sandeep Koli’s supervision.[2]