Shimla: After charas mafia, police crackdown on tourists and peddlers

Manali: After cracking down on charas mafia that overseas the production from isolated forest areas in the region, Kullu police has launched a campaign to get rid of drugs from tourist and public places of the district. Five tourists have been arrested in the special campaign in the last two days.

Police teams are raiding places that are notorious for the use of charas and other contrabands.

Based on a tip-off, a police team on Tuesday raided the Barshaini-Kheerganga trek route where a large number of tourists are going missing. Police took strict action against people, especially tourists, using drugs and those selling charas in the tents pitched in the middle of the Kheerganga trek.

Arjit, 18, tourist from Rajasthan, Sonali, 30, tourist from Bangalore and Bharat Sharma, 23, tourist from Delhi have been arrested and 13.3gm charas was recovered from their possession. All three were on way to Kheerganga. Five persons who were selling contraband to tourists from their tents have also been arrested. Mobi Roy (40gm charas), Sunita Thapa (12.4gm opium and 2.16gm charas), Jhalak (12.6gm charas), Ajay (3.7gm charas and one cartridge of .12 bore gun), all residents of Nepal, and Ratan Chand (23.1gm charas), resident of Nakthan village of Kullu, have been arrested.

In another case, police have arrested recovered 5.15kg charas from the possession of two tourists from Punjab. According to police, they had laid a naka in Banjar area of Kullu on Tuesday late night when they stopped a car for search and recovered the contraband from their possession. Accused have been identified as Ammi and Jasvir Kumar, both residents of Garhshankar, Hoshiarpur.

Besides frequent raids and nakas, police are checking the public areas in district that are often used by people to consume drugs. On Monday, police arrested five youth Vijay Kumar, Rakesh, Mohinder Negi, Dharam Pal and Yogesh, all residents of Dobhi and Katrain villages of Kullu, who were trying to smoke heroine inside a vehicle. After seeing police, one of the accused Yogesh tried to escape and jumped into a nullah. He sustained some injuries and was rushed to the hospital. Police recovered 14gm heroine from him.

Two persons, Chet Ram, resident of Mandi and Jagdev, resident of Kullu, were arrested by district police on Monday after 4kg charas was recovered from their truck in Anni sub-division of Kullu. Both were trying to take out charas for purpose of sale.

Kullu superintendent of police, Gaurav Singh said police are doing everything possible to remove the stigma of charas and other drugs from Kullu. “We are laying nakas and raiding different places based on tip-offs. We shall not allow use of drugs at tourist and public places. The campaign will continue until people start fearing selling, buying or using the drugs,” he said.