Inter-state ganja racket busted,kingpin held

The Surat police have busted an inter-state ganja (marijuana) racket by arresting the alleged kingpin from Ganjam district in Orissa with the help of Orissa Police. The arrested was identified as Govind Pradhan.

Pradhan’s arrest followed the arrests of two persons,who were carrying ganja worth Rs 1.6 lakh,from Pandesara in Surat recently. The duo was identified as Bahuguna Barik (39),a native of Ganjam,and Raju Mistry (22),from Uttar Pradesh. During interrogation,Bahuguna reportedly told the police that Pradhan had given him the contraband. Based on the information,a team of Surat police went to Ganjam and arrested Pradhan from his house with the help of Orissa Police. He was produced before a Surat court on Monday,which sent him to police remand for nine days.

Police said Pradhan,who owns agricultural land in Ganjam where ganja is cultivated,had been running the racket for a long time. He used to buy ganja from tribals of different villages at nominal rates. He would then supply it to his ‘agents’ for sale at much higher rates in different states,including Gujarat and Maharashtra.

Khatodara Inspector C K Patel said,“There are many youths from Ganjam who are now settled in Surat. The agents often take their help and give them parcels and mobile phone numbers of Surat agents.”

He said Surat police had arrested Bahuguna in a similar case in 2004 and he was subsequently jailed for two-and-a-half-year.