E-Paper
Jharkhand family working as drug peddlers; father, son held in Bareilly
UP STF recovered eight kilograms of opium worth ₹ 4 crore that the duo was going to deliver to drug peddler in Uttarakhand
The arrest of a drug peddler and his son carrying around eight kilograms of opium worth ₹4 crore in Bareilly on Saturday night unravelled the story of a family of four —husband, wife and their two sons — working as carriers for an international drug peddling racket for past many years.
The UP Special Task Force (STF) arrested one Mukesh Chaurasiya alias Mantu, 55, and his son Priyanshu Chaurasiya, 22, the residents of Jharkhand from Shahi trisection under Shahi police station limits of Bareilly district.
In a press note shared by the STF on Sunday, the officials said Mukesh Chaurasiya revealed that he and his family including his wife and two sons Divyanshu and Priyanshu Chaurasiya were involved in this drug peddling racket for past many years and it was their only source of income. They said the family basically belongs to Sehdev Nagar under Pandra police station limits of Jharkhand’s capital city Ranchi.
The officials said earlier Chaurasiya and his wife used to carry drugs together as a couple and later involved their two sons in the same business. They said the family used to get opium from Nepal across the porous India-Nepal border through Bihar at a very cheap rate and supplied it to drug peddlers in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Delhi and Haryana. They said Chaurasiya revealed that opium and brown sugar came at very cheap rates in Nepal and were sold at high rates in Indian states.
The officials said Chaurasiya, his wife and two sons often used to travel through different means of transports like train and bus as a family following which they did not come under suspicion and managed to carry opium and brown sugar hidden in their clothes and other belongings. They said they had even made hidden pockets in their clothes to carry the drugs and narcotics substances while travelling to different places across states.
They said the father and son duo landed in a police net when they were travelling from Jharkhand to Uttarakhand to deliver the consignment to a drug peddler there. They said the STF has approached the Jharkhand agencies to track Chaurasiya’s wife and his elder son Divyanshu to initiate further action against them. They said Chaurasiya had revealed the names of many drug peddlers of Uttar Pradesh and other states following which further investigation was underway.
