6 lakh worth ganja seized, 5 held

Chirala: The Martur police arrested a gang of five persons illegally transporting 180 kgs of ganja worth Rs 6 lakh, procured at Visakhapatnam agency and delivering to merchants in other districts, on Friday and seized two cars.

According to the Inkollu CI, Md K Altaf Hussain, the police received information about the smuggling of ganja from Narsipatnam to Nellore and other districts on NH 16. The Martur SI, P Chowdaiah and his staff caught Kondrapu Naidu, Manchimsetty Ramakrishna of Narsipatnam mandal, Chinadevara Ashai of Peda Gangavaram mandal, Bodakurti Rajesh of Golugonda mandal in Visakhapatnam district Avula Manohar of Tada in Nellore district while shifting the packets of the ganja from one car to another car at Rajupalem in Martur mandal on Friday afternoon. The CI said that another accused by name Lovaraju purchase the ganja from the growers like Chinadevara Ashai and utilizes the services of Kondrapu Naidu, Bodakurti Rajesh, Manchimsetty Ramakrishna in delivering the stock to merchants like Avula Manohar etc, on a commission basis. The CI said that as the transport delayed on Friday, the merchants and transporters met at Rajupalem and exchanging the ganja stock from one vehicle to another and caught red-handed by Martur police.

The Inkollu CI and Martur SI announced that they seized 180 packets of ganja, weighing 90 kgs and worth Rs 6 lakh along with the two cars, Hyundai Verna and Maruti Suzuki Ertiga with registration numbers TN11-3435 AP39AB-6999 respectively. He announced that they are looking for the accused Lovaraju and will arrest him soon.