Ganjam peddler’s assets worth over 5cr to be attached under Narco Act

Berhampur: Properties worth over Rs 5.50 crore of a drug peddler in Ganjam district’s Khallikote area would be attached following the order of a competent authority, Kolkata.
A quasi-judicial authority under the NDPS Act, Kolkata, on Friday passed an order for freezing of the properties of drug peddler Rajani Kant Pattnaik and his relatives at Khajapalli under Khallikote police station limits.
“We have already frozen his movable properties, which had been seized during the raid at Pattnaik’s house on October 22 last year,” SP (Ganjam) Brijesh Rai said on Monday. Steps are being taken to freeze the immovable properties in his and his relatives’ names following the order of the competent authority, he added.
The movable properties include 8.596 kg of gold ornaments (worth around Rs 4.52 crore), cash of Rs 75.09 lakh and bank deposits worth Rs 3.05 lakh. Similarly, the immovable properties include at least 16 plots in Khajapalli and Mala Khajapalli area in the name of his brothers, sisters and mother, sources said.
The police claimed this might be the highest-ever value of properties of a drug peddler confiscated in the state. They also claimed that the accused amassed these properties using ill-gotten money from drug trafficking in the last six years.
In a case registered on October 22 last year, the police had seized over 35 kg of ganja and over 10 kg of opium from Pattnaik’s house. During the search, the police had seized the movable assets, including gold ornaments and cash. He was arrested the same day.
“The accused had said that he had procured the seized contraband items from different cultivators of Phulbani area in Kandhamal district for selling and trafficking,” said Jagannath Mallick, inspector in-charge, Khallikote police station.