844 kg poppy husk worth Rs 40 lakh seized in Himachal’s Sirmaur

Tribune News Service
Solan, April 11

In a major seizure, a team of Paonta Sahib police in Sirmaur district seized 844.200 kg poppy husk, worth about Rs 40 lakh, which was stacked in 21 white plastic bags amidst boxes of cotton yarn in a Canter (HR 58 A 8028) during checking by the Majra police on Saturday night.

DSP Paonta Sahib Bir Bahadur said the Majra team had a tip-off and when checked, the contraband was found stacked in 21 white plastic bags and concealed among the 150 boxes of cotton yarn in the said Canter which was headed for Ludhiana.

As per preliminary probe, the contraband was brought from Rajasthan. The driver Ravinder Kumar (30), a resident of Yamunanagar, along with his cleaner Ravi Kumar (47), were treading with utmost caution.

They spent at least 48 hours to reach Rohtak from Rajasthan as they wanted to be sure that they would not be arrested en route.

The driver was well versed with the routes in the Paonta Sahib area as he had been delivering industrial goods here since the last quite some time.

This is the second major seizure after January when 451 kg poppy husk had been seized by the local police.

Since it is consumed in large numbers by the drivers, it is readily sold in this industrial belt to truck, canter and other drivers.

A case under sections 15 and 29 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act has been registered and further probe was underway.