Police arrest 8 ganja peddlers, seize 100 kgs of contraband

HYDERABAD: Rachakonda police have arrested eight ganja peddlers and seized 100 kgs of the contraband from their possession in Adibhatla.
Police nabbed G Jogender, Ganga Kawari, Milan Haldar, Pavan Kumar Rao, Durga Prasad Goud, Vivek Mandal, all from Malkangiri district of Odisha,. Dharampal Das of Sukma in Chattisgarh and Devidas Pawar of Fatehnagar.
On Wednesday afternoon, Vanasthalipuram Traffic sub-inspector (SI) D Srinivas Rao, who was on ORR patrolling duty, noticed two Bolero vehicles with Chattisgarh and Odisha registration numbers respectively, parked on the side of ORR at Bongulur. As it was not permitted to stop vehicles on the ORR, the SI stopped the patrolling vehicle and called the drivers of Boleros to enquire what was wrong.
“On seeing the SI, the seven accused got into the Boleros and sped away towards Patancheru. The SI alerted Adibhatla police and they intercepted the two vehicles at Bongulur Gate. We found 25 packets, each containing about four kilos of the contraband, of ganja, hidden in the two Boleros,” Rachakonda police commissioner Mahesh Bhagawat said.
They told police that Jogender, a habitual ganja peddler, had procured the contraband from Kalilemela in Odisha for Rs 4,000 a kg and with the help of others, brought it to Hyderabad to sell it to Devidas Pawar of Fatehnagar for double the price. Based on the information given by the culprits, police arrested Devidas from Patancheru in the evening.
Devidas said he was planning to sell the ganja to customers in Sholapur. Since seven of the accused were from Malkangiri area, police were verifying if they have any Maoist links.