BENGALURU: After closely checking trains and passengers entering the Bangalore Railway Division over a week, the Government Railway Police (GRP) on Tuesday evening seized 15 kg of ganja from two passengers of the Marikuppam-KSR Bengaluru MEMU, when it stopped at the Bangalore Cantonment Railway station. The banned substance has been brought by them from Andhra Pradesh.
An FIR under the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropics Act has been booked against the two (names have been withheld) and they will be produced at the fourth ACMM court at Nrupathanga Road on Wednesday, said a top GRP official.
Satyappa Mukanavar, Sub-Inspector, Cantonment Railway station, who was involved in the operation, along with three other cops, told The New Indian Express, “The duo brought the ganja from Vizianagaram in AP and they took the Howrah Express on Monday. They alighted at Krishnarajapuram on Tuesday morning and then took the Marikuppam Passenger train to Cantonment,” he said. “The substance was concealed in air bags,” the cop added.
The GRP had received a tip-off a week ago that ganja was being smuggled into the city, Mukanavar said. “We kept checking all the trains entering the Cantonment station and caught them red-handed when this MEMU reached this evening,” he said. The train stopped at Platform 2 around 4.25 pm.
Asked if smuggling of ganja on trains to Bengaluru was becoming a frequent phenomenon, Deputy Superintendent, GRP, Ashok said that it took place on and off, may be once in two or three months. “Ganja is being brought to Bengaluru from Eastern parts like West Bengal or Odisha,” he said. “Nearly two months ago, we had nabbed 8 kg of ganja from a train at Cantonment,” he added.
A top official of the Railway Protection Force said the commodity was brought on trains from eastern states but smugglers were switching trains midway as they have understood that trains from that direction were being subjected to checks.
Smuggling of ganja into the city is on the rise in 2019 as flights are being used to bring them. Further investigations are on to get details, Ashok added.