A drug peddler, bailed out last year under Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) act was arrested yet again on Thursday on a drug peddling charge and a haul of Rs 31 lakh brown sugar was seized from his possession in a raid near Haladia College in Khurda town police station jurisdiction, a senior official of Special Task Force (STF) of crime branch said.
The accused identified as Rajkishore Sunday was nabbed with 310 grams of the banned substances valued at Rs 31 lakh. Incidentally, the arrested drug peddler was earlier booked in a similar case last year.
After being bailed out by the court, the accused resorted to drug trafficking yet again. Acting on a tipoff, he was apprehended yet again.
The drug peddler booked under Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) is being remanded to judicial custody, said officials adding that further investigation is underway to ascertain whether he was supplying drugs to other parts of the State.
The STF is relentlessly continuing its operation on drug peddlers across the State. And that is paying rich dividends. Since 2020, the STF has seized more than 44 kilograms of brown sugar.
The seized narcotics would have fetched the drug peddlers nearly Rs 44 crore in the black market. This apart, 87 quintals of cannabis locally called Ganja, a banned substance, were also seized during the period. Since 2020, STF has arrested as many as 121 drug peddlers, Deputy Inspector General of Police, STF, Jay Narayan Pankaj.