In a major crackdown against narcotics drug trade in Rourkela, the Steel City police on Monday busted a racket involved in the distribution of contraband by rounding up six of its conduits on Monday. Efforts are on to arrest two more accused who are presently absconding.
The accused have been identified as Roshan Ray, Md Irfan Alam, Md Nasim, Md Jarad, Vivek Sonkar and Bajrang Shah.
Acting on a tip off, the Plantsite police conducted raids at two places in the city. 322.34 gm of heroin worth around Rs 8 lakh was recovered from the two places. Moreover, the officials recovered two 7.65 mm country made pistols, 7 round live bullets and Rs 1.26 lakh cash from the accused.
As per reports, the peddlers were targeting mostly young customers. To nab the accused the Steel City police had constituted a special team and mounted surveillance since the past three months.
“We seized drugs and arms and ammunitions from the arrested accused. We have frozen fixed deposit bond of Rs 25 lakh and a savings account having deposit of Rs 12 lakh,” Superintendent of Police (SP), Mukesh K Bhamoo said.
“It is a successful operation as we have not only arrested them with drugs and arms, but also crippled their finances,” he added.
Additionally, the police seized 3 scooters, 1 motorbike and 6 mobile phones. The accused will be produced at court today and further investigation is underway.
Earlier this month, a major Maoist extortion ring run by a splinter group of the left wing ultras received a body blow when the Rourkela police apprehended a top operative from his hideout in far off Assam.
Arjun Rana alias Kapil Pathak, a key conduit of the Jharkhand-based People’s Liberation Front of India (PLFI) was nabbed by a special team of the Steel city police.