DEHRADUN: In what has been termed by the district police as one of the biggest seizure of contraband in recent history, Champawat police recovered 25 kg of charas worth more than Rs 50 lakh at Banbasa on the Indo-Nepal border.
Accused Rajesh Sharma, 33, resident of Bareilly, was held during a regular police checking at Sharda barrage on Saturday night. Giving details, Dilip Singh Kunwar, superintendent of police (SP), Champawat, said, “Sharma’s SUV car was stopped by our team during a regular check as he was coming back from Mahendranagar, Nepal. He denied knowledge about the charas stored at the car’s rear seats and said he was only asked to deliver the consignment for someone. We are looking into the case.”
During investigations, Sharma said he uses the vehicle as a private taxi to ferry people from Bareilly to the Nepal border here for a little extra money, police said. Sharma has been booked under required sections of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act and has been sent to jail.
“There appears to be big racket involved in smuggling charas from Nepal into India. We have intensified checks on the Indo-Nepal border here to curb it,” said Kumar.
