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526 kg ganja seized in Arunachal’s biggest drug haul

This is the biggest ever drug bust in the history of the Arunachal.

Itanagar: Police on Friday arrested a 35-year-old woman and seized around 526 kilograms of marijuana worth Rs 52 lakh from a concealed storage of her house in the Kankarnallah area near here.

Capital superintendent of police Jimmy Chiram on Saturday said based on a tip-off regarding a husband-wife duo supplying narcotics in large quantities in the Itanagar Capital Region, a special team of the capital police was constituted to develop information and arrest the said supplier.

The team consisted of Naharlagun SDPO Dekio Gumja, Naharlagun police station officer-in-charge inspector Khiksi Yangfo, sub-inspector S S Jha and constables Kanto Samyor and Sandeep Yadav.

“A technical and human surveillance was accordingly put in place to identify the couple while the team also collected information from its sources and later managed to round up the address of the suspected peddlers,” the SP said. Also read: Arunachal: DHS clerk, Assam man held for fake job letters scam

A raid was then carried out at the house of one Tadar Chada at Gollonallah in Kankarnallah at around 6 pm on Friday.

SP Jimmy Chiram

“During the raid, the police team came across a hidden storage, and in it were 31 bags containing suspected cannabis weighing a total of 525.97 kilograms. Cash amounting to Rs 50,000, one Indian made pistol of .32 caliber and an SUV suspected to be the proceeds of the drug trade were also seized,” Chiram said while adding that the current market value of the seized cannabis (ganja) is around Rs 52 lakh.

The police also arrested one Tadar Kampung (35) and a case under relevant sections of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 has been registered at the Naharlagun police station against her.

The SP said Tadar Chada, Kampung’s husband was not present in the house during the raid and “he seems to be absconding”.

Kampung is evasive and uncooperative but inputs suggest she had procured the marijuana from Sagalee, Mengio and Kalaktang and stored it in the hidden godown from where she used to supply it to the retailers and wholesalers. Efforts are on to establish the source of drugs and to identify and arrest all the peddlers and buyers associated with the duo, the SP said.

Head constable Iter Ngomdir, constables Lham Tsering, Raj Tamang, Tape Haging, C M Chowlik, J Poyom, B J Borouh, Nabum Talo, Debojit Borah, Chungju Nilling, Gaju Rai, lady constable Kime Rija, a CRPF team led by inspector A P Singh and executive magistrate Likha Radh were also a part of the raid.

This is the biggest ever drug bust in the history of the state.