Seraikela : In a shocking incident a consignment of 400 Kg of marijuana being carried in an ambulance was seized by police at Seraikela in the adjoining Seraikela-Kharsawan district early Sunday morning.
The police succeeded in seizing the consignment of the narcotics as they chased the ambulance at Muria village on the Kandra-Seraikela Road.
However, no one could be arrested from the marijuana-laden ambulance as the driver of the vehicle along with another man managed to flee the spot leaving the vehicle and the consignment .
Confirming the incident Seraikela-Kharsawan SP, Indrajit Mahatha said that the ambulance with registration number of Uttar Pradesh was moving either towards Jamshedpur or Ranchi.
Mahatha said that a patrolling party stranded near Seraikela police station had seen an ambulance moving at a high speed.
” We are investigating the incident and it is too early to comment. The officer-in-charge, Vinod Kumar of the police station who was leading the patrolling party tried to stop the ambulance, but the vehicle overtook the police vehicle, leading the patrolling party to chase the vehicle.
After chasing for about 10 Kms, the police party saw the damaged ambulance close to a kiosk. The police saw there was no one inside the ambulance, and instead it was filled with sacks,” the SP said.
Mahatha said the OC Kumar inspected the sacks and find marijuana. ” After the incident more police officers visited the site and also officials from the excise department which confirmed that the consignment found in the ambulance was marijuana.
There were 100 sacks each containing 4 Kgs of the stuff. Soon we seized the consignment,” said the senior police officer. He stated that sale of marijuana is prohibited. The cost of the seized consignment will be around Rs 50 lakh, he added.
The police found two documents related to a truck. ” During the search we found two papers related to the ownership of a truck. The papers must be linked to Odisha as there was mention of Odisha’s registration number on those papers.
Today, being Sunday we could not get the papers verified, but tomorrow a team will visit Odisha and get the papers verified so that we may reach to the gang which had been smuggling marijuana in ambulance,” Mahatha said.
When asked Mahatha said they suspect the consignment of marijuana was being carried somewhere from Odisha, but he could not say about the destination where the consignment was to be delivered.