Nine arrested as opium crop worth over Rs 6cr seized in Balrampur

Raipur: Police and the district administration arrested nine accused in two linked cases of illegal opium cultivation in Chhattisgarh's Balrampur district near the Jharkhand border and seized standing crop, opium latex and plant material valued at over Rs 6 crore.Police said the latest breakthrough came from places in Balrampur district, where teams unearthed illegal opium cultivation spread over about several acres in a remote forest-fringe area close to the Jharkhand border.Balrampur collector Rajendra Katara confirmed the action and said the seizure from the Korandha site included opium plants with roots, stems, leaves, flowers and pods weighing 1,883.76 kg. He said a case was registered under sections of the NDPS Act and an end-to-end probe was under way, including scrutiny of the financial trail.Police said nine men in both the cases were arrested after they were found allegedly tending the crop and tried to flee on seeing the police team.The administration said intensive searches were under way in border areas adjoining Jharkhand, with separate teams of revenue, forest and police departments combing private fields, forest land and remote pockets for similar illegal cultivation.The Korandha discovery came close on the heels of another major opium haul in the Kusmi area of Balrampur, where authorities earlier found illegal poppy cultivation spread over 3.67 acres in Tripuri village. In that case, officials said 4,344 kg of opium crop, along with about 1.9 kg of opium latex, was seized.Investigators suspected a cross-border network may be using Balrampur's remote and hilly terrain for illegal poppy cultivation after intensified anti-opium action and satellite-based surveillance in a neighbouring state. Both the Kusmi and Korandha sites lay close to the inter-state boundary in sparsely accessed areas where movement was limited and monitoring was historically weak.In the Korandha case, the accused farmers claimed they had been told the crop was a "spice" that would bring better returns than conventional crops. One of them allegedly said he had taken land on lease for Rs 6,000 a year and agreed to the cultivation after being promised a share in the profits. Officials, however, said several poppy pods at the site bore multiple incision marks, indicating latex extraction had already begun.SP Vaibhav Banker said that they were probing the involvement of labourers from Jharkhand who allegedly guarded the crop and worked in the fields before fleeing ahead of the raid.Three cases of opium cultivation were reported till now, including one from Durg and two from Balrampur. In Durg, police on Thursday arrested a fourth accused in the illegal opium cultivation case linked to BJP leader Vinayak Tamrakar.The accused was a resident of Jodhpur in Rajasthan. Investigation revealed that opium seeds used for cultivation were procured from Rajasthan. A man identified as Chhotu Ram supplied the seeds to the accused, and police arrested him in Jodhpur.Earlier, police already arrested three accused in the case.