Out of work, Rajkot folk singer takes to drug smuggling

RAJKOT: A folk singer was held with 16kg marijuana worth Rs 97,524 from Maliyasan village on the outskirts of Rajkot on Wednesday night.
Police said that the accused, Manishdan Badani (32) had procured the contraband from a drug dealer from Surat. The delivery of the drugs was made at Sayla in Surendranagar district.
“We had received a tip-off that Badani was carrying marijuana in his car, following which we had kept a watch for him at Sokhada Chowkadi on Rajkot bypass where we intercepted Badani’s car,” said Jaideepsinh Sarvaiya, assistant commissioner of police, crime branch, while addressing a press conference.
The contraband was stuffed in six packets. “Badani said he intended to sell the drugs to others as due to lockdown he was not getting any shows. His source of income was badly hit. So he decided to try his luck in drugs smuggling,” said Sarvaiya.
“Our investigation has revealed that Badani had been into the drugs dealing for the past few months. He would make small and big packets of ganja and sell them to customers in the range of Rs 100 to Rs 200,” added Sarvaiya. Sarvaiya said they had sought the remand of Badani to find out as to for how many months he had been into this business and to whom he had sold the contraband.