Ganja smuggling surges in Sangareddy, officials seize 425 kg in 10 months

The Sangareddy district has witnessed a sharp rise in ganja smuggling and cultivation, with NH-65 becoming a key corridor for transporting contraband from the Andhra–Odisha border. Social activists are urging authorities to combine enforcement with awareness campaigns to curb consumption among students and workers.

Sangareddy: The growing smuggling of ganja through Sangareddy district, along with its sale in various forms, has raised serious concerns. Cultivation of ganja plants by farmers within agricultural fields has also increased noticeably.

NH-65, the highway connecting Mumbai and Hyderabad, has become a key corridor for transporting dry ganja from the Andhra–Odisha border to Mumbai and other parts of Maharashtra and Karnataka.

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Excise and police officials have seized large quantities of dry ganja from peddlers over the past 10 months, recovering 425 kg in multiple cases and seizing 80 vehicles.

Officials have also intensified checks in rural belts, removing 952 ganja plants grown amid agricultural fields, most of them found in remote villages of the Narayankhed Assembly constituency.

Despite courts sentencing several offenders to life imprisonment in ganja-related cases, peddling continues unabated. Police and excise officials have booked 190 persons in the first 10 months of this year, and 72 smugglers have been bound over.

The sale of ganja in chocolate and other forms has also surfaced, with several cases registered in areas such as IDA Bollaram and Patancheru, where industries are concentrated and migrant workers are present in large numbers.

Social activist M Chandra urged officials to focus not only on curbing smuggling but also on spreading awareness among students, industrial workers and residents to discourage ganja consumption.

 

Hyderabad court sentences man to 25 years for child assault

Meanwhile, a local court in Hyderabad, convicted and sentenced a man to 25 years of rigorous imprisonment for allegedly sexually assaulting a two-year-old girl last year at Kachiguda.

The man, Sardar Trilokh Singh, who is the uncle of the girl, had sexually assaulted the victim when her mother had left the child under Singh’s family care while she went out for work.

The incident came to light, when the victim showed signs of health issues and her mother took her to a doctor, who informed her about the sexual assault on the child.

The police arrested Singh on 22 June 2024 and remanded him. After the trial the court sentenced the man to 25 years rigorous imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on him.