Balasore: Joint teams of personnel from Excise department and local police station conducted raids on three separate locations in Jaleswar and Basta localities of Balasore and seized huge quantities of brown sugar following raids Thursday night, sources said.
According to a senior police official, the 20-member team got information from a reliable source that five smugglers were separately negotiating with different parties to sell the contraband item.
Swinging into action, the team carried out a raid on the house of Sheikh Jamaluddin alias Sania in Jhadeswarpur locality here. However, Sania managed to give a slip to police and fled from the spot. Officials then arrested Sania’s three sons in this connection. The quantity of brown sugar seized during the raid has not been ascertained so far, the police official informed.
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In another incident later in the day, some Excise officials intercepted a man near Jhadeswarpur during a routine patrolling. Around 240 grams of brown sugar was seized from the man. The arrested man has been identified as Anil Kumar Mahanta from Gadibasa village under Karanjia police limits of Mayurbhanj district.
Similarly, during another raid, around 153 grams of brown sugar was seized from a youth at Sadanandpur under Basta police limits. The drug peddler was identified as Sheikh Azharuddin of the same village. He was also arrested.
In another development, Excise department officials raided Soro and Nilagiri towns of Balasore district and seized 666 litres of local liquor and 740 litres of IMFL and arrested three persons.
PNN