Six persons including two home guards were arrested on charge of transporting ganja and two assistant sub-inspectors of police suspended in this connection in Odisha's Kandhamal district, a senior police officer said today.
"Actin on a tip-off, a police team raided a car at Phiringia yesterday and caught its occupants red-handed with 20 kg of ganja," Kandhamal district Superintendent of Police Kuanr Vilash Singh said today.
The ganja and the vehicle had been seized and all the accused were arrested under provisions of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, he said adding the contraband was being ferried to Indore in Madhya Pradesh.
Meanwhile, two assistant sub-inspectors of police (ASI) of Phiringia police station Trilochan Prodhan and Kuber Digal were placed under suspension for alleged dereliction of duty and indulgence in corruption based on the interrogation of the accused.
During interrogation the accused confessed that they were doing the trade on ganja with tacit knowledge of the local police, Singh said.
Kandhamal excise superintendent SS Gantayat said ganja mafia from neighbouring states including Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh were promoting large scale ganja plantation like any traditional crop in Phiringia and Gochapada police station areas.
The mafia help the farmers with financial aid by providing high yield seeds with provision of dug wells fitted with motors for cultivation of ganja and also deply their agent to supervise the crop, Gantayat said.
Stating that they had destroyed over one lakh ganja plants in last one year with instruction from police and district administration, the excise superintendent said every time they replenish the crop with heightening quantity in organised manner. "This has become a headache for us", he said.
