Instagram user, others booked for reel on preparing charas in Himachal Pradesh’s Parvati Valley

According to the First Information Report (FIR), Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) Nek Ram, posted as Acting Station House Officer at the Manikaran police station, was monitoring social media platforms as per directions from senior officers. During this review, the officer came across a reel uploaded a day earlier from an Instagram account. The video purportedly shows five women sitting in a veranda and preparing charas.

The FIR further states that several other videos on the same Instagram profile depict cannabis cultivation. The police noted that the video appeared to have been filmed by one of the women involved in charas preparation. They added that the act of collectively preparing charas and promoting it online constitutes offences under Sections 20, 28, and 29 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act.

Rajesh Kumar, Deputy Superintendent of Police (Headquarters), Kullu, told The Indian Express, “Investigators suspect the video was filmed within the jurisdiction of Manikaran police station, as one of the other clips posted by the same account shows visuals of the Radha Krishna Temple in Manikaran. Consequently, a case has been registered (at Manikaran) against all five women appearing in the video, including the Instagram user.”

Parvati Valley in Kullu district, located at altitudes ranging from 1,500 to 5,000 metres, provides a natural habitat where cannabis plants grow abundantly without cultivation. The Himachal Pradesh Police, along with the Narcotics Control Bureau, have periodically launched drives to destroy cannabis plantations in the valley.

2 arrested for possessing heroin

Two women were arrested for possessing 12.042 grams of heroin in the Old Jubbal area of Shimla on Thursday. The police have also seized Rs 63,690 in cash and an electronic scale from their possession. One of the women is a local, and the other is from Yamunanagar in Haryana.