Hyderabad: Telangana police successfully busted an interstate drug smuggling racket and seized 803 kg of dry ganja worth Rs 3 crore. Five persons have been arrested in connection with the case so far. Two are absconding.
The arrested have been identified as Somanath Khare, Sunil Khosla and Jaga Suna, natives of Odisha; Sanjeev Kumar Hollappa Okare and Harade Sanjeev Vittal Reddy, natives of Bidar, Karnataka.
Two members of the gang – Ramu hailing from Araku (prime accused), Andhra Pradesh; and Suresh Maruthi Patil from Maharashtra – are absconding, police said.
Along with ganja, police also seized the seven mobile phones, DCM container lorry and a car.
According to a police statement, one of the accused Somanatha Khara worked under Ramu and delivered the drugs to customers by engaging other drivers.
He introduced container lorry drivers Sanjeev Vittal Reddy and Sanjeev Kumar Hollappa Okare to the drug racket. Through them, Khara used to supply drugs to various states.
Khara asked Sanjeev Vittal Reddy to transport the drugs such as ganja in his DCM container lorry from Odisha to Maharashtra.
On July 30, Sanjeev Vittal Reddy received an order to transport food items from Patancheru to Vizag. He along with co-accused Sanjeev Kumar Hoppala delivered the food items in D-Mart.
On instructions from Khara, Sanjeev Reddy along with Sanjeev Hopala were on their way to deliver the seized ganja to another co-accused Suresh Patil.
Patil was tasked to transport the ganja to Maharashtra.
On August 1, the men rented a hired vehicle and reached Gotlam area of Vizianagaram to deliver the ganja packed in six gunny bags.
To avoid coming under the CCTV footage, the men removed the number plates of the vehicles before approaching toll gates. After passing every toll gate they fixed the numbers to the vehicles.
On August 3, while nearing Pedda Golconda ORR Junction, the men were arrested by the police. The operation was carried out along with special operations team (SOT) Cyberabad – Balanagar team and Shamshabad police.
