Woman held while selling brown sugar in Bhubaneswar

Bhubaneswar: With a spurt in drug peddling incidents in the past couple of months, it seems the capital city has now turned into a hub for illicit narcotics trade. The Excise officials today arrested a woman on charges of selling brown sugar in Bari area under Khandagiri Police limits in Bhubaneswar today.

Acting on a tip-off, the sleuths managed to nab the woman, whose identity hasn't been revealed, from the busy market area and seized 21 grams of brown sugar along with Rs 5000 cash from her possession, while the seized contraband is estimated to be around Rs 5 lakh.

Meanwhile, police have started an investigation to establish whether she was operating independently or has links with any gang.

On February 1, in a joint operation by Laxmisagar police and Quick Action Team(QAT), brown sugar weighing 19.4 gm was seized from a woman of Haladipadia slum in Bhubaneswar.

Last month, the Excise officials had arrested a B.Tech student of a private university for selling brown sugar near Big Baazar area in Patia of Bhubaneswar.

Prior to that, officials of the Excise Department had seized brown sugar worth Rs 38 lakh from Chintamaniswar and Haldipadia area in Bhubaneswar and arrested three persons including two women in connection with the case.