Bargarh: Police personnel of Jharbandh police station in Odisha’s Bargarh district have come under scanner for their alleged links to a ganja mafia.
While Jharbandh IIC Shukra Madhi has been transferred to the district police headquarters pending an inquiry, assistant sub-inspector (ASI) Kaushik Sahu
and constable Chittaranjan Panda have been suspended and Home Guard Debarchan Nial dismissed.
Sanjay Kumar Parida, previously IIC of Bargarh’s cyber police station, has replaced Madhi.
The actions follow the Bargarh police’s major success last week in busting an inter-state drug trafficking racket during which 1,914 kg ganja worth around Rs 4 crore was seized and five people, including a truck driver from Uttar Pradesh, were arrested. The ganja was concealed in 67 packets inside a truck carrying cashews from Odisha to Uttar Pradesh.
According to sources, multiple large-scale ganja hauls in the district in recent times had raised suspicions of local police complicity with traffickers.