Kanker district police in Chhattisgarh say they have broken up an interstate ganja smuggling network carrying loads from Malkangiri in Odisha towards Haryana.[1][2][3][4] A tip on 4 November said ganja was being brought in a Fortuner from Odisha via Keshkal towards Kanker.[4][5] Police set up checkposts at four or five places[2][6], first on the Garhpichwari Chowk bypass road and later at Makdi Pulia and Gyani Chowk.[5] Seeing the check, the gang dumped the load near Singarbhat and fled.[1][2][3][7][5]

The brown-taped packets were found in forest and hills near the Shiva temple by the Singarbhat rice-mill quarter, and were counted and weighed before witnesses.[4][5] They held 433 kg of ganja in 90 packets, which police valued at about Rs 2 crore 23 lakh.[1][2][3][7][6]

The arrest

Police and the cyber cell went through footage from more than 300 CCTV cameras, including those at toll posts, petrol pumps and main junctions[2][7][4][6][5], while the driver kept moving and switching off his phone.[5] They arrested the accused, Sukhpal alias Sukkha, 30, in Uttar Pradesh[1][2][3][8][7][4][9][5]; one account places the arrest in Fatehabad district of Haryana.[10] He was produced in court on 7 November and sent to judicial remand in a case under the NDPS Act[8][7], and was brought to Kanker on Sunday 8 November.[5] He is the only one arrested so far, and police are looking for the others.[1][2][3][4][6]

The Fortuner used in the smuggling, registered in Haryana and valued at about Rs 25 lakh, was seized.[1][2][3][4][6] Additional superintendent of police Yogesh Sahu said it carried six fake number plates from Odisha, Maharashtra and Haryana, which the driver changed to get loads past police checks.[1][2][3][8][7][4][6][5] Police put the total seized at about Rs 2 crore 48 lakh and the whole network at about Rs 3 crore.[1][3][7]