Palghar, Jun 9 (PTI) Police have arrested a woman and seized more than 20 kgs of ganja valued at Rs 8 lakh in Maharashtra's Palghar district, an official said on Monday.
The woman, Sharda alias Kudi Gopi Banjara (43), externed for two years from Palghar district in 2024, was arrested on the night of June 7 following a tip-off and subsequent surveillance by Crime Branch Unit III of the Mira-Bhayandar Vasai-Virar (MBVV) police, he said.
"We received credible information that a woman was transporting narcotics while travelling from Mira Road to Nalasopara in an autorickshaw. Based on this input, police officer Suhas Kamble was directed to initiate immediate action," said Inspector Shahuraj Ranawre.
A team led by Kamble laid a trap near a housing society and at Around 11:30 pm, an autorickshaw traveling from Virar was intercepted and the woman, a resident of Nalasopara (East), was nabbed, according to the inspector.
Upon checking her belongings, the team found ganja in her possession, he said, adding "The contraband weighed 20.171 kg and was valued at Rs 8,06,840."
The accused had a prior criminal record and had been externed from Palghar district for two years under orders issued on June 18, 2024, by the police commissioner's office, Ranawre said,
Despite her externment, the accused returned to the area and was involved in narcotics trafficking, he said.
Externment norms, under which a criminal is banished from a certain geographical area, are meant to stop a person or gang from committing crime.
An FIR has been lodged under relevant sections of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS Act) and the Maharashtra Police Act, 1951, on a complaint registered at the Nalasopara police station.
The accused was produced in a court, which remanded her to police custody until June 15, said the inspector.