During the ongoing drive to make Cuttack city drugs free, the Commissionerate Police recovered Rs 75.20 lakh following a raid at the house of a notorious ganja (dry cannabis) peddler, Narayan Pati on Saturday.
Pati was nabbed by a joint team of the Special Squad and Badambadi police on Friday. He was under the scanner of the Commissionerate Police since long as he was involved in illegal narcotics trade over the past several years.
Though Pati was arrested five- six times in the past, he managed to secure bail in each case as the contraband (ganja) seized from his possession would fall under non-commercial category under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) act, said Cuttack DCP, Prateek Singh.
According to Singh, a protracted surveillance was mounted on Pati as he would often procure and supply very small quantity of ganja to various parts of the city.
On Friday, the police received information that Pati, along with one of his associates Abakash Swain, were holed up in the city. Subsequently, a raid was conducted at their hideout and 20 kg ganja was recovered from them.
“Following Pati’s arrest yesterday, a team from Badambadi police station conducted searches his residence and recovered Rs 75.20 lakh cash and other gold ornaments. We will write to the Enforcement Directorate and Income Tax department to initiate confiscation procedure of the huge recovered cash,” Singh added.