441 kg of ganja worth Rs 2.2 crore seized in Jharkhand 4 arrested

Ranchi/Garhwa, Nov 9 (PTI) Four people were arrested and a total of 441 kg of ganja worth Rs 2.2 crore was seized in separate operations in Jharkhand, officials said on Monday.

    In Garhwa district, police seized 426 kg of ganja valued at around Rs 2.13 crore from a container truck parked near the Kalyanpur Overbridge under the jurisdiction of Garhwa police station on Sunday, a police officer said.

    "Acting on a tip-off, police searched the vehicle to recover the contraband. During the operation, police recovered 426 kg of ganja from the truck, wrapped in 426 plastic packets weighing one kg each. The seized contraband was hidden in a secret chamber of the truck," Garhwa SP Ashutosh Shekhar said.

    No one has yet been arrested in this connection, as no person was present in the vehicle during the operation, he said, adding that the seized truck has a registration number from Uttar Pradesh.

    Police initiated a detailed investigation into the matter after lodging a case under the NDPS Act, the officer said.

    In a separate operation, the Railway Protection Force (RPF) arrested four interstate drug peddlers from a general coach of the Hatia-Islampur Express and seized 15 kg of ganja from their possession at the Tatisilway Railway station on Saturday night, an official statement said.

    During interrogation, the accused stated that the seized contraband was purchased from Balangir in Odisha and was being taken to Bihar's Champaran area. Three of the accused are residents of Uttar Pradesh, while the fourth one, who is also the purchaser of the contraband, hails from Bihar's West Champaran district, it said.

    The estimated market value of the seized ganja is around Rs 7.5 lakh. The seized ganja and all four accused were handed over to the Ranchi Government Railway Police (GRP) for further action, it added.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)