Three raids in two days at Hippargarao Wadi in Umarga taluka; 6.87 quintals of cannabis seized

Umarga: Illegal cannabis cultivation on farmland and government grazing land has come to light at Hippargarao Wadi on the Maharashtra-Karnataka border. The anti-narcotics squad from Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar and Umarga police raided two places on Friday, October 9, and seized 6 quintals 42 kg of cannabis, said to be worth more than ₹3.2 crore.

In the first raid, the anti-narcotics squad found cannabis plants five to six feet tall in a field in survey number 47/13; they weighed 3 quintals 44 kg and are valued at about ₹1.72 crore. In the second, Umarga police seized 2 quintals 98 kg, worth about ₹1.49 crore, grown among other trees on government grazing land near a house in the same area. The raids were carried out under the guidance of superintendent of police Ritu Khokhar.

Police carried out a third raid on Saturday, October 10. Inspector Pralhad Suryawanshi received a tip-off that a suspect who had grown cannabis on grazing land in survey number 39/2/1 had uprooted the plants on sensing police action and hidden them in four sacks covered with a saree. In a raid conducted in the presence of naib tahsildar Pravin Kabre, independent witnesses and a forensic team, 45.79 kg of dried cannabis worth ₹22,68,500 was seized.

A case has been registered against the suspect under the NDPS Act, and assistant inspector Shrikant Bharate is investigating. The three raids over two days have yielded 6 quintals 87.79 kg of cannabis in all. Questions are being raised about how cultivation on this scale in the border area escaped the notice of the local police.

Sources: Pudhari; Pudhari; Pudhari; Pudhari