Bhubaneswar: A special task force (STF) of state Crime Branch arrested a woman and her son for peddling drugs and seized brown sugar from their residence at Haladipadia basti under Laxmisagar police limits here Saturday.
In a press conference following the raid, the police have hinted at an inter-state and inter-district brown sugar racket operating in the state.
The accused were identified as Smruti Kalpana Lal and her son Sanjit Lal.
Acting on a tip-off, the STF team raided the accused’s residence and found five gram of the contraband. On frisking the son, the team recovered another five gram of brown sugar from his pockets.
The STF registered a case against the duo under Sections 21(B) and (C) of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 (NDPS) and forwarded them to court. They would be on judicial remand for further investigation.
Meanwhile, speaking to the media here, SP, Crime Branch, STF and CID, Satyajit Nayak said, “The illegal psychotropic substances are sourced from West Bengal. The drug peddlers have been transporting the contraband from Kolkata via Balasore. We have taken up this case under NDPS Act to find out the inter-sate and inter-district link to the brown sugar trade in the state.”
It is worth mentioning here that July 27 another mother-son duo was arrested from the slum and 13.5 gram of brown sugar along Rs 1.28 lakh in cash were seized from them.