Telangana’s anti-narcotics force, the Elite Action Group for Drug Law Enforcement (EAGLE), arrested Kalapathi Neethu Bai in Hyderabad on 5 November 2026, after she had evaded arrest for more than a year.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10] Its technical team tracked her although she avoided using a mobile phone, and caught her in an autorickshaw heading towards Mangalhat, next to Asif Nagar.[1][11][3][4][12][13][7][14][15] No drugs were found on her; officers took between ₹1 lakh and ₹1.59 lakh in cash and a mobile phone.[1][2][16][3][4][17][18][12][6][13][19][14][20][15][21] She was handed to the Cyberabad Narcotics Police Station and remanded to judicial custody.[3][4][18][12][6][22][13][19][15]

A family trade

Police said Bai and her family bought ganja in bulk and sold it in small packets around Nanakramguda, where software workers and students live, for about nine years, with a family-run grocery, the Jayalakshmi Kirana and General Store, as cover.[1][16][3][12][23][6][22][8][24][25][9] At its height the trade allegedly took ₹24 lakh in a day, with currency counting and weighing machines.[26][7] About 63 customers had earlier been identified and sent for de-addiction, and about 50 were caught buying at her home.[1][11][3][18][12][6][26] She told police the trade was the family’s only income.[24]

Thirty cases

About 30 cases under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act and the Excise Act were registered against her and her family between 2017 and 2026, at stations including Serilingampally, Dhoolpet, Narayanguda, Golconda, Gachibowli and the Cyberabad narcotics police; she was wanted in 13 of them, and about 12 came in the last two years.[1][2][3][4][5][17][18][23][27][19][14][24][25][9][21] She was arrested and bailed several times and returned to the trade each time, moving between Nanakramguda, Gachibowli and Langar Houz to stay ahead of the police.[4][5][18][6][13][19][14][24][25]

Earlier seizures linked to the family include 22 to 23.4 kg of ganja and about ₹40 lakh in August 2023, when Golconda police and the state Anti-Narcotics Bureau caught her son with the drug; 7.5 kg and ₹5 lakh in a Gachibowli police raid in October 2023; 22.6 kg and ₹22.10 lakh in March 2024; and ₹2.60 lakh in a Cyberabad raid on her home in June 2026; together about ₹67 lakh and 51.5 kg.[2][11][3][5][12][6][26][20][25] She was held under the Preventive Detention Act in 2021 and released in October 2022; a second detention order of June 2024 was revoked by the High Court, and EAGLE said it would seek one again.[11][24]

The money

A financial investigation found ₹40.30 lakh in cash, ₹1.53 crore in 16 bank accounts and about ₹2 crore of property, more than ₹4 crore in all.[18] Police froze the bank accounts of the family and its store, and are examining two four-storey buildings in Langar Houz, a three-storey building in Gachibowli and new construction at the Nanakramguda home; EAGLE director Sandeep Shandilya said they would seek to confiscate what drug money had bought.[3][4][5][18][12][22][27][19][14][24] The Enforcement Directorate searched three of her premises in September, and the shop and a shed built on the road were demolished.[8] The investigation into her suppliers and associates continues.[1][4][12][23][27][9]