In a major breakthrough, the Excise officials on Wednesday busted a racket involved in selling Ganja (cannabis) in the guise of cigarettes. A woman has been arrested following a raid at Biseswar slum in Acharya Vihar area. The accused has been identified as Rangabati Das.
The excise officials said that around 5000 ganja-laced cigarettes and 24 kg of ganja has been seized during the raid. Sources said that mostly students and youngsters were regularly purchasing the ganja-laced cigarettes from the area. Moreover, the ganja-laced cigarettes were being sold under a code name.
Only those who used the code word ‘Baba cigarette’, were provided with the ganja cigarette.
Excise Inspector, Bikash Nayak said, “A team was formed and investigation was launched. Some of our staff posing as students had gone to the spot and purchased some Ganja cigarettes. Today, we raided the area and arrested the woman.”
According to Nayak, the accused woman’s husband was arrested last year. Though they had stopped selling Ganja-laced cigarettes, it appears that they had resumed the illegal business recently. Most students and youngsters were frequently coming to the place to buy, he said.
The accused woman said, “We used to procure Ganja from Phulbani through some person. A lot of people in the slum are also doing the same business. There was a code name ‘Baba cigarette’ for those who wanted to buy Ganja cigarettes.”