CUTTACK: The Railway Protection Force (RPF) and Government Railway Police (GRP) during a joint raid on Wednesday seized nearly 116 kg ganja from Puri-LTT Express at Cuttack railway station and arrested five persons in this connection.
The contraband, weighing 115.93 kg is worth around Rs 57.96 lakh. The accused are Abdul Shakoor Mariyar (56), Jitendra Ramesh Thakur (47), Tanveer Yaqub Chougule (44), Ahamed Raza Siddqui (34), all of Maharashtra and Abhisek Kumar (19) of Bihar.
The checking operation was conducted basing on information from the crime inspector, Crime Investigation Branch (CIB), Khurda regarding illegal transportation of ganja in the train. During interrogation, the accused confessed that they had travelled to Bhubaneswar by flight, procured the contraband and were to transport it to Mumbai, informed RPF inspector, Cuttack post, Prabin Kumar.
“While Abdul, Jitendra and Tanveer confessed they had been involved in ganja smuggling for the last six-seven months, Ahamed and Abhishek said this was their second trip,” said Kumar.
They further revealed that the contraband was being transported to different suburban destinations in Mumbai as per the directions of their mentor, and they were being paid around Rs 10,000 for each suitcase, said the RPF inspector.
“The accused also disclosed that one Dilip Tripathy of Bhubaneswar was supplying the contraband to them for disposal in Mumbai through one Sameer,” he said.
