E-Paper
Opium in Ghoorpur: Two more held for growing it, intoxicant worth ₹50 L seized
Around 58 kilograms of opium plants, fruits etc were seized from the spot and a case under the NDPS Act was registered against them
A day after the arrest of a farmer for opium cultivation in Handia of trans-Ganga area, the Ghoorpur police also arrested two people for the same offence.
Around 58 kilograms of opium plants, fruits etc were seized from the spot and a case under the NDPS Act was registered against them, police officials said.
DCP trans-Yamuna Shraddha Narendra Pandey said that ACP Kaundhiyara Vivek Kumar Yadav and SHO of Ghoorpur police station Keshav Verma received a tip-off about cultivation of opium at Amreha village on Friday.
A police team reached the spot and sealed the agricultural land on which opium plants were cultivated. Revenue officials and an excise department team also reached the spot and measured the agricultural land.
The police arrested two brothers identified as Mishri Lal and Panchraj Kushwaha of Amreha who owned the agricultural field. They admitted cultivating opium illegally in their fields. Opium crops (1,208 plants) and 1,307 fruits weighing 58 kg were seized from the spot.
The seized opium is estimated to be worth around ₹50 lakh in the international market. The two accused were being questioned further to learn about people to whom the illegally grown opium was to be sold.
Earlier, the Handia police had arrested a farmer who had grown opium on his 10 biswa of agricultural land, on March 14. An FIR was registered against the farmer under the NDPS Act and he was arrested. DCP trans-Ganga area Abhishek Bharti had shared that Handia police had received inputs about illegal farming of opium at Naunra village on Thursday.
