Etawah (UP), Feb 3 (PTI) Three drug smugglers were arrested here and over a quintal of ganja worth about Rs 25 lakh was recovered from them on Monday, police said.

Etawah Senior Superintendent of Police Sanjay Kumar Verma said that during checking of vehicles on Monday at Pattapura Aayara culvert under Basrehar police station area, when a truck was signalled to stop, two people jumped from the truck and started running.

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The police team caught them and took the truck along with the driver into custody. On searching the vehicle, 112.360 kg of ganja stuffed in five plastic bags hidden in the truck was recovered.

The SSP said the arrested smugglers were identified as Sonu Chauhan, truck owner Tej Pratap Singh Chauhan alias Ashish Chauhan and truck driver Ranjeet Singh.

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As many as 12 criminal cases are registered against the arrested Sonu Chauhan and four cases are registered against Ranjeet Singh in various police stations of Etawah and Auraiya, Verma said, and added that further legal action is being taken in the case.

In Barabanki, Superintendent of Police (SP) Dinesh Kumar Singh said that Ramnagar police station police arrested two smugglers from Kishunpur turn on Monday and recovered 52 kg of illegal 'bhaang' from their possession.

The SP said that the arrested accused have been identified as Pradeep Kumar Yadav and Sheelu Yadav. Both are residents of village Ramnagar under Fatehpur police station area of Barabanki district.

Police have recovered 52 quintals of illegal 'bhaang' from the possession of the accused. Apart from this, a truck being used in smuggling has also been seized.

He said that the police have registered a case against both the accused under the Excise Act in Ramnagar police station.

(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)