Chhattisgarh's: Man held with brown sugar worth crores in Mahasamund

The police have arrested a 30-year-old man and seized brown sugar worth Rs 1.46 crore in Chhattisgarh's Mahasamund district, a senior official said on Thursday. Acting on a tip-off, the police on Wednesday nabbed Shankar Lal Vaishnav from Ghodari Chowk on NH-53, Mahasamund superintendent of police Prafull Thakur said. The police had received information that a man from Raipur was looking to sell the contraband in Mahasamund, he said.

While vehicles were being inspected at the check post, the accused, who was on his way to Mahasamund from Raipur on a two-wheeler, tried to flee and was apprehended after a short chase, he said. The police seized 730 gm of brown sugar, valued at Rs 1.46 crore, an automatic pistol, two magazines, two bullets and an electronic weighing machine from the accused, the official said. The accused is a native of Jodhpur in Rajasthan and is a Grade IV employee at Lokayukta office in Raipur, he said.

"The contraband was suspected to have been bought from Rajasthan, as Vaishnav revealed that another person from his native state was involved in smuggling of narcotics. He has also disclosed that his associate had links with Pakistan," he said.

The accused was booked under relevant sections of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act and the Arms Act, the official said, the case will be handed over to the state's Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) for further probe.