Sirmaur police acting on a tip-off raided Inder Singh’s native village of Ghotari, on the border of Sirmaur and Shimla districts, in a late-night operation and recaptured the 37-year-old from the room where he was sleeping.[1][2] Officers found 22.68kg of charas wrapped in four packets in that room.[1][2] Police said the catch was worth about one crore rupees in the Goan market, and more internationally.[1]

Singh was handed a six-day police remand and told investigators he had bought the charas from local people who make it from marijuana plants growing wild in the region.[1] He also claimed the consignment was meant for a sadhu from the ongoing Kumbh Mela who was to visit him to collect it.[1]

Singh was a convicted dealer booked under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act in 2009 and sentenced in early 2011 to a ten-year jail term, which he served at Kanda jail in Shimla district.[1] Released on three weeks’ parole in April 2011 on the pretext of a sister’s marriage, he never reported back, and police had been looking for him ever since.[1][2]