Four arrested with ganja worth Rs 75 lakh near Kosamba

SURAT: In one of the biggest seizures of cannabis in the recent times, the Surat rural police on Sunday night seized 752kg of ganja worth Rs 75 lakh from Kunvarada village near Kosamba and arrested four persons. Police seized three vehicles from them and booked two other persons who had sent the consignment to Surat from Odisha.
Last week, the Surat rural police had seized 240kg of ganja worth Rs 24 lakh.
On Sunday evening, Kosamba police station received a tip-off that a big haul of ganja had been hidden in Kunvarada village. Soon a police team raided Shivshakti Residency in the village and found 365 parcels of ganja in three vehicles. Each parcel was about 2kg in weight and the total seized consignment was about 752kg.
Police arrested four persons - Kedarnath Mahanty (33), Balram Mahanty (26), Shibaram Gauda (22) and Santosh Mahanty - from house number 106 in the society. The four live in Mota Borasara village in Mangrol taluka but were at the spot with the ganja consignment. Police declared two other persons - Gaurishankar Mahanty and one KRT - wanted in this case as they had sent the consignment to Gujarat.
The four arrested had taken delivery of the consignment at 2.30am on Sunday from a truck outside Raj Hotel near Kamrej. They led the truck to a deserted place in Pansara village and shifted the 365 parcels into two tempos and one car. Then they went to Shivshakti Residency where Gaurishankar had a house.
Deputy superintendent of police (DSP) BK Vanar Surat division said: "This is one more big haul we have seized within a week. Last week, we had seized 240kg of ganja worth Rs 24 lakh."
He said that those who had sent the consignment have history of crime and they sent it by truck. "Smugglers have changed the modus operandi - they have been taking the road route instead of the rail route for the last few months,'' he said, adding that police had adopted a 'zero tolerance' policy towards drugs.
Vanar added: "Those arrested were waiting for the orders from their leaders to deliver the parcels in small numbers at other places. We are investigating who were the potential buyers in this case."