BHOPAL: An alleged inter-state ganja smuggling racket has been busted in Satna district of Madhya Pradesh with the arrest of two men, including Anil Bagri, the elder brother of MP’s minister of state for urban development and housing Pratima Bagri.
Acting on a specific tip-off, a police team from Rampur Baghelan police station raided the house of one Pankaj Singh in Marahuan village late Sunday night and seized more than 46 kg of ganja worth over Rs 9 lakh, stashed in sacks under a tin shed.
The seizure led to Pankaj Singh’s arrest. He later told police that Anil Bagri had brought the ganja consignment to his house in an SUV on December 4.
A subsequent probe led the Rampur Baghelan police to Anil Bagri, the minister’s brother.
“Both Pankaj Singh and Anil Bagri have been arrested and booked under the NDPS Act. They were produced in court on Monday and sent to judicial custody,” Rampur Baghelan police station in-charge Sandeep Chaube told TNIE.
Bagri’s questioning revealed that he transported the consignment to Pankaj’s house at the behest of his brother-in-law, Shailendra Singh ‘Shibbu’, who was recently arrested in a ganja smuggling case in Uttar Pradesh and is currently lodged in Banda jail.
Shailendra is no stranger to narcotics cases - he was arrested in September 2024 in a cough syrup smuggling case in Satna district.
“We will bring Shailendra Singh on a production warrant from Banda Jail to investigate this racket further,” the police officer added.
Further investigation suggests the ganja consignment was sourced from Beohari (Shahdol) and that key players in the racket may have links to Chhattisgarh.