Jigani police head constable arrested in Odisha along with ganja while arresting suppliers

BENGALURU: A police head constable, who had gone to Odisha to arrest some ganja suppliers, has been arrested by the police of that state on charges of ganja peddling. Bengaluru Rural Additional SP P Purushotham and Jigani Police Inspector Manjunath are now heading to Odisha to secure the head constable’s release on bail.

The Jigani police had recently arrested Sanjay Rawat for drug peddling and during questioning, he had revealed the names of two ganja suppliers based in Odisha. Following this, Bengaluru Rural SP Mallikarjun Baladandi had authorised a team of eight people to go to Odisha and arrest the ganja suppliers. The team included six policemen, one Shyam who knew the ganja suppliers and another youth from Jigani with knowledge of Odia.

Head constable Anand K (marked in this photo), who was part of the team.

After getting information about the location of the ganja suppliers, Anand, Shyam and the youth headed to the fringes of the Kandhamal forests posing as buyers.

The team seized 17 kg of ganja and were bringing the accused when the Kandhamal police arrested Anand and another person from the team, accusing them of peddling ganja, despite providing documents that they were policemen. In the melee, one of the ganja suppliers escaped.

Apparently, the Kandhamal police arrested Anand as the Jigani police had not kept them in the loop. The arrested head constable was sent to jail and the Bengaluru Rural police are now making efforts to secure his bail.

Superintendent of Police Mallikarjun Baladandi said they are making efforts to secure the release of the head constable.

Superintendent of Police Mallikarjun Baladandi said, “On October 10, we had arrested one Kageshwar for peddling ganja, who revealed that he was getting supplies from Sanjay Rawat of Odisha. Based on this information, we had arrested the three people, including the main accused, and seized 10 kg of ganja from him. On further investigation, it was revealed that the supplies were coming from Odisha”.

Following this, a team of six policemen from the Jigani police station, led by Assistant Sub-Inspector Appaji was formed and all documentation was made for their travel. The team was accompanied by Shyam and Jayanthand they left for Odisha on October 30, the SP explained.

“The team established contact with the ganja suppliers Naresh Pradhan and Subhash Pradhan, who agreed to meet 2-3 people from the team in the forest area. Accordingly, head constable Anand, Shyam and Jayanth went to the forest where they met Naresh and Subhash Pradhan. They then informed the team and were taking the duo to inform the local police when a patrol team arrived there. One of the accused then tried to flee following which the Odisha police caught all of them along with the seized ganja. All were taken to the Sarangada police station and questioned”, Baladandi said.

“We have confirmed to the higher officials there that the team was in that state as part of the investigation. But due to some miscommunication, four people including the head constable were arrested”, he said. The Additional SP and the Jigani police inspector has been sent to Odisha to secure the release of the arrested and bring them back, the SP added.