KARUR: A Congress functionary was suspended from the party by the district president on Thursday for cultivating ganja plants in land taken on lease at Mamarathupatti.
Around 250 kg of ready-for-harvest ganja, worth Rs 12.5 lakhs, was detected on a half an acre in a 7-acre plot on Wednesday which lead to the arrests of two people.
V Balakrishnan, DIG Tiruchy range, received a tip-off about ganja cultivation at Mylampatti near Mamarathupatti in Kadavur. A team Thiruverambur ASP Dongre Praveen Umesh inspected the field and confirmed that ganja was being cultivated in the farm.
It turned out that a Congress functionary had taken the land on lease and cultivated it.
Arunachalam (40), son of Lakshmana Goundar of Chinnadevanpatti at Kadavur is the president of Congress’ Kadavur North zone unit.
He had taken the 7-acre land at Mylampatti on lease from Zaheer Hussain of Kumbakonam and left it in the care of his father in law P Thangavel (70) and V.Murugan (49).
“The duo was cultivating coconut, turmeric, maize and spinach. Also, they cultivated, in about 72 cents, ganja. The plants were 6 months old and measured 5 to 8 feet in height. They would have been harvested in 2 months time. To hide the odour of ganja, the duo planted jasmine nearby” said a police source.
A probe revealed that Arunachalam was the brain behind the farm. Police are on the lookout for Arunachalam, who is in Bangalore now.
Following the allegations made against Arunachalam, he was stripped of his post and suspended from the party by the Karur District unit president R.Chinnasamy.
Sources said the issue was taken to the notice of the TNCC president to remove him from the party. Meanwhile, officials removed the plants on Thursday.
The uprooted ganja would be produced in the court after which a decision will be taken by the judge on destroying them.
Officials from Revenue and Agriculture departments were called in, Revenue officials measured the extent of ganja cultivation and agriculture officials took samples for test.
As the crop is 8 feet in height, destroying them would take a few days as they have to be rooted out using earthmover machine.