Agra: A Class XII student of a Delhi school and a 21-year-old woman were among three caught by Agra GRP on Thursday with 20 kg of cannabis which they were allegedly smuggling from Visakhapatnam. The three were trying to board a taxi for Delhi at Agra railway station.
According to police, the student, who lives away from her parents, was paid Rs 5,000 to smuggle the contraband to Delhi. “It was her first time, the minor told us. While the other two accused had been working as a courier for some time,” Vijay Singh, the Agra Cantt SHO, said.
One of the accused has been identified as Imran, 23, who is a tailor in Kailashpuri area, but originally belongs to Hooghly, West Bengal. The second accused is Seema, who is a school dropout. She is the minor’s friend.
“Seema and Imran claimed, during interrogation, that they don’t know each other, but had a mutual contact, identified as Rahul, who lives in Delhi. For every successful delivery of the cannabis consignment from Rajahmundry via Visakhapatnam to the national capital, the individual was paid Rs 5,000 to Rs 15,000. The minor – a Class XII student – lives separately from her parents and was in need of money,” a GRP investigation officer said.
As part of the drug cartel courier’s modus operandi, they travelled to Visakhapatnam via flight or a premium train and returned with contraband in sleeper coaches of some Delhi-bound express train. Earlier, the gang used to travel in Rajdhani Express with cannabis, but frequent police raids forced the gang to change their operative ways.
“Now, they alight at Agra Cantt or Mathura and opt for taxi service for the national capital via Aligarh and Ghaziabad or via Yamuna expressway,” the SHO added.
The gang members, who reportedly do not have any knowledge of the “kingpin”, were only in contact with one Rahul in Delhi and one Shaheed in Rajahmundry.
All three have been booked under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. The minor will now be sent to a Ghaziabad-based juvenile rehabilitation centre, while the two others will be sent to Agra district jail. According to the Agra Cantt GRP, since February 2019, a total of 519 kg of cannabis worth Rs 51.9 lakh have been seized from 35 men, five women and one minor.
Earlier on February 26, 2020, the Agra Cantt GRP seized 20 kg of ganja worth Rs 1.6 lakh from three, including a 27-year-old woman. On October 19, 2019, five men were arrested for smuggling 62.5 kg of cannabis from Visakhapatnam via train.
On June 9, 2015, the GRP seized 100 kg of marijuana. Three days later, three men, including two college students, were arrested in Delhi’s Rajghat area for smuggling marijuana – again using the railways network.