Shillong: West Jaintia Hills police today seized 1168 kg of ganja worth over Rs 3 crore from a container truck even as two persons managed to flee from the spot, according to police.
The incident took place at the Mookyndur checkpoint when the Naka party of Ummulong beat house were conducting routine vehicle checking during the wee hours today and detected one container truck approaching from the Jowai side and was signalled to slow down and stop, police said.
Instead, the vehicle stopped at a distance before the checkpoint and two persons were seen alighting from the vehicle and fleeing from the spot and leaving the said vehicle behind. It aroused the suspicion of the duty personnel and immediately a hot pursuit was made to a certain extent but taking advantage of the darkness, the duo managed to disappear from the area, superintendent of police, Bikram D Marak said.
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Accordingly, the vehicle was checked at around 1:30 am and on entering the driver’s cabin, a very strong odour of marijuana was emitting from the cargo area of the said vehicle.
Hence, ANTF was informed and by following the laid down procedures, a thorough search of the vehicle was made in presence of independent witnesses and recovered ganja/marijuana packed in 80 packets of rectangular shape covered by tightly wrapped brown tape with a total weight of 1168.182 kgs which accordingly the market value worth Rs 3.5 crores, he further said.
A case has been registered and an investigation is on.
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Meanwhile, the Director-General of Police, Meghalaya, has taken cognizance of the recovery and has assured to reward all police personnel on duty for their alertness during wee hours and thereby managed to stall a huge consignment of marijuana.
NNN