Maharashtra: 5 from Chandrapur district held with 22 kg of cannabis

A search of the sacks revealed that each man was carrying between 3 and 6 kg of cannabis. The six men were booked under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act and arrested. They have been identified as Akshay Rathod (24), Amar Kamble (27), Datta Thombare (40), Sudhakar Kadam (40) and Ramu Waghmare (69), residents of Kumbhezari village in Chandrapur’s Jiwati Taluka.

The taluka, nestled in the forests bordering Maharashtra and Telangana, includes 14-and-a-half villages. Both states claim these villages belong to them. For decades, villagers have been voting in elections in both the states. While they receive subsidised grains and rations from Telangana government, they have not been granted titles for their farmland by either state.

The police said the main accused, Thombare, cultivates cannabis on his farm and also procures some from tribals living in the forest. “Thombare had visited Mumbai twice in the last year-and-a-half to sell cannabis through a local agent. But when the agent passed away a few months ago, he was in search of another partner in Mumbai,” an officer said.

The officer added that Rathod, who drives an autorickshaw in the village, managed to strike a deal with a dealer in Mumbai through his sister, who stays in Thane. The men were caught while allegedly waiting for the buyer in Borivali. “The accused sell cannabis for not more than Rs 1,000 per kg in Jiwati. They were going to a get a better price in Mumbai. The price per kg is Rs 20,000 here,” the officer said.

However, the police in Chandrapur claimed that villagers in Jiwati do not cultivate cannabis. “We have not come across any reports of cannabis being cultivated by villages in their farms or forests on either side of the state border, as we regularly coordinate with the Telangana Police. Local residents would have reported any such instance to us. Tribals also do not grow or consume cannabis. It is possible that these men may have purchased the cannabis for somewhere else,” said Vilas Yamawar, Sub-Divisional Police Officer, Gadanchur Division of Chandrapur.

Earlier this year, Yamawar had investigated a group of villagers from Kumbhezari, who had allegedly participated in transporting cannabis from Telangana to Maharashtra.

Chandrapur SP Maheshwar Reddy said that cases of seizures, sale or cultivation of cannabis in the district are few and far between. “People in Jiwati taluka are very simple and often migrate within and outside the state, as they lack local sources of income. There might be a few aberrations among them,” he added.