Crime Branch busts major inter-state drug cartel

New Delhi: Delhi Police’s Crime Branch has busted an interstate drugs cartel with 228kg of fine quality cannabis worth approx. 1.14 crores in the international market.

An anonymous source tipped the Crime Branch of the Delhi Police about the cartel.

The accused were identified as Jeevan Sunar resident of Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, and Parmanand alias Praveen Kumar resident of Badli Village, Delhi. According to the police, the bust was a part of the ongoing “Operation Kavach,” a specialised campaign aimed at curbing the supply of narcotics in Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR).

A team from the Delhi Police’s Crime Branch, Rajouri Garden, led by Inspector Sandeep Yadav and supervised by ACP Ajay Kumar, executed the operation based on secret intelligence.

The team successfully apprehended two individuals Jeevan Sunar, and Parmanand during the transport of the cannabis.

Following the arrest, the police registered a case under sections 20(b)(ii)C/25/29 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act at the Crime Branch.

During interrogation, Jeevan Sunar revealed that he had been involved in smuggling cannabis from the Andhra-Odisha border, acting on the directions of Parmanand and his associates.

The narcotics were concealed in trucks, hidden under other goods to evade detection. Sunar further disclosed that the cannabis was to be delivered to Parmanand in Delhi.

The accused Parmanand was also apprehended while unloading the cannabis from the truck into his car.

Investigations revealed that the drugs were sourced by Rajesh Adikathia, a resident of Koraput, Odisha, who had already been arrested by the Crime Branch in an earlier case involving ganja supply in Delhi NCR.

Rajesh had loaded the contraband into a truck from the Parvatipuram area of Andhra Pradesh, close to the Odisha border.