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The Surat Crime Branch detained three persons late Tuesday and seized 564.510 kilograms of marijuana worth Rs 56.45 lakh and the truck in which the contraband was being ferried.
Acting on a tip off, crime branch officials had stopped a truck on Puna Saroli road in Surat on Tuesday evening. The officials questioned the three persons in the truck, including the driver, and found that they were returning to Surat from Aska district in Odisha. Upon inspection of the truck, ganja packed in 15 gunny bags was found hidden in cabinets behind the driver’s cabin.
The contraband weighed 564.51 kilograms and worth Rs 56.45 lakh, confirmed Forensic Science Laboratory officials who had also reached the spot.
The three youths were identified as Mithun Swai (25), Tukna Gowda (34) and Basant Swai (32), all residents of Aska district in Odisha. They were booked under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act.
During interrogation, the trio confessed that the seized contraband is owned by one Dilip Gaud, a resident of Pandesara in Surat and native of Ganjam district in Odisha. They added that Dilip is presently in Odisha and he had asked Mithun to hand over his truck on September 9. Dilip had then made secret cabinets behind the driver’s cabin and loaded the contraband inside. Police said that Dilip had paid Mithun fare of Rs 80,000 and had told the latter to deliver it to his men at Pandesara in Surat.
On September 19, Mithun and two others left Aska district in the truck and reached Surat on Tuesday. Before they could deliver the ganja contraband, they were caught by police. Assistant Commissioner of Police, Surat Crime Branch, RR Sarvaiya said, “We have declared Dilip Gaud as wanted in this case. Mithun and two others, Tukna and Basant, were aware that the ganja was loaded in the truck and still brought it from Odisha to Surat.”