Within less than 24 hours, Police seized total 161 kg Ganja from two different places in Sonamura and Melaghar area and arrested one person under Sepahijala district in Tripura.
With inputs from SB and DIB departments, Sonamura PS OC Parthanath Bhowmik conducted raid at one Hariz Mian’s house at West Durlavnarayan Village and recovered 121 kg ganja from the house. Even as Hariz was available, Police also arrested Hariz Mian’s son Jahir Hussain. Sources said, few more people are involved with Hariz Mian, but they are now absconding.
Earlier, Melaghar Police with the help of Sonamura Police, raided Maniram Choudhury Para under Nalchhar in the same district and found 40 kg ganja from a Rubber plantation. It is believed that miscreants got wind of impending Police raid and managed to hide large quantity of ganja.
Notably, many of the Sonamura sub-division and adjoining areas are infamous for ganja cultivation. Taking advantage of dense forests, locals cultivate ganja plants. After BJP-IPFT stormed into power in Tripura in 2018, Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb called for making Tripura a drug-free State. Accordingly, rigorous Police started against the ganja cultivators as well as ganja smugglers.
On various occasion, Police across the State got success in seizing ganja and often arrested people involved in the cultivation or smuggling. Destroying ganja plants have become an almost regular activity. In some areas, villagers attempted to resist Police force from destroying or seizing ganja. However, Police action remained unabated.
With Police vigil tightened, Ganja cultivators and smugglers have adopted innovative methods to continue their activities.
While, cultivators choose dense forest areas and rubber plantations to avoid Police vigil, smugglers tried their lucks in various ways. Several times, smugglers used empty tankers to ferry ganja. Packaging of ganja to evade Police was noticeable. Smugglers even attempted to smuggle out ganja using air route.
However, Police proved smarted than the ganja traders and seized the consignment. However, battle against ganja seems to be a long drawn battle as Police are regularly seizing ganja from different parts of the State.
