Telangana’s anti-narcotics force, the EAGLE Force, arrested Bhaskar Hazarika in Hyderabad after a 60-day hunt, and its director Sandeep Shandilya said he was held with four other members of an Assam-based gang.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] The operation, with Choutuppal Police, seized 24.7 kg of marijuana and seven mobile phones.[1][2][3][13][14][15][16][17][4][5][18][6][7][8][9][11] The five were Hazarika, Babu Borah, Nirmal Hazarika, Pranajal Dutta and Akan Rajbanshi, all from Assam and living in Prem Nagar, New Hafeezpet[1][4][8][12]; among them were a Rapido driver, a private employee and an Uber driver.[13]

Police raided a house at Prem Nagar on Wednesday night and arrested the five there.[15][16][12] They had tracked two couriers carrying ganja into the house[3][19]; the couriers collected it at a railway station, EAGLE deputy superintendent Madhumohan Reddy said.[12] A case was registered at the Cyberabad Narcotics Police Station.[13][16][11]

From Choutuppal to Prem Nagar

The investigation began on 27 August, when EAGLE and Choutuppal police chased and intercepted a Maruti Suzuki Fronx[1][2][12] carrying 20.3 kg of ganja, by other accounts 20.36 kg, and arrested two couriers from Odisha, Trilochan Samantaray and Sagar Bal.[3][15][18][19] Questioned, they led investigators to their employer, Bikas Barik, arrested on 29 August, who named Hazarika as his buyer[15][16][19]; EAGLE then formed a Special Task Force to find him.[6]

Hazarika

Hazarika, 31, is from the Narayanpur area of Lakhimpur district in Assam.[5][12] He came to Hyderabad in 2014, worked as a security guard and delivery executive, and entered the ganja trade in 2020.[1][15][7][9] He ran a small roadside hotel at Prem Nagar.[4][8] Three ganja cases were registered against him in 2024, two at Madhapur and one at Gachibowli police station[2][3][9][11][12]; NewsMeter dates them to January and March 2024, with seizures of 1.96 kg, 1.3 kg and 700 grams.[8] Released on bail, he resumed the trade.[2][13][16][9][12] One account says he went back to his home village after a jail term and expanded his network there[7]; another that he returned to Hyderabad in late 2017, worked for Swiggy and Zomato, and resumed operations in June 2025, buying from Barik and two other Odisha suppliers through WhatsApp.[19] He first bought from Odisha-based Pitaranjan Nayak.[6]

The trade

The gang bought ganja from suppliers in Odisha, among them Ashish Kumar Baliarsingh and Debasis Nayak alias Pinku Nayak, at ₹12,000 to ₹15,000 a kilogram through WhatsApp orders, and sold it in Hyderabad for around ₹50,000 a kilogram.[1][2][3][13][15][17][6][9] Each kilogram was repackaged into about 150 small packets sold for ₹300 each[1][2][3][13][5][7], and Hazarika reportedly sold 40 to 50 kg a month over ten months to around 100 regular customers in Cyberabad.[1][7] Reddy said he negotiated only over WhatsApp with messages set to disappear within 24 hours and took payment in cash or digitally.[13][12]

Bank records showed more than ₹48 lakh paid to Ashish Kumar in 88 transactions between 2 February and 29 October 2026[1][14][7][8], and a bank account linked to Hazarika received credits of ₹1.45 crore in about one and a half years.[12] Investigators estimated that about 400 kg moved through the supply chain, with sales of nearly ₹1.8 crore in ten months, and said Hazarika had other sources of supply.[1][3][17][6][7][8]