Mahasamund, Jun 7 (PTI) Police in Chhattisgarh's Mahasamund district have seized 500 kg of ganja worth Rs 1.25 crore from a truck and arrested two persons for transporting the contraband, said a senior official on Wednesday. The ganja was concealed in sacks of rice husk, the official said.

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Acting on a tip-off, police intercepted a truck coming from Odisha at Rehtikhol village on National Highway number 53 at the state border on Tuesday, Mahasamund Superintendent of Police (SP) Dharmendra Singh told the media.

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Following a search, they discovered 500 kg of cannabis, or ganja, worth Rs 1.25 crore and arrested the two persons on the truck.

The duo, both Delhi residents, told the police that they used to work as driver partners for ride-hailing services like Ola and Uber but suffered huge losses during the COVID-induced lockdown and got into cannabis trafficking, the SP said.

“The accused were transporting rice husk from Odisha but generally the husk is transported to Odisha from Chhattisgarh,” he said.

The two were heading to Chhattisgarh capital Raipur and some person from the city had apparently hired them to transport the consignment.

“We are trying to find out the person,” the SP said.

The two men have been identified as Sudhir Kumar Yadav (43) and Ramkumar Shahankar (51) and a case has been registered against them under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act at Singhoda police station, he added.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)