The Satara police conducted raids and confiscated 88 kg of poppy pods from Eksal village in Koregaon tehsil on Friday. Satara has become the fifth district in the state after Beed, Sangli, Pune and Osmanabad, where the police have unearthed illegal poppy cultivation.
Inspector Ranjeet Desai attached to the Satara police, said, "The police arrested a farmer, Dnyaneshwar Gulabrao Bhosale (30), who was cultivating poppy as intercrop with garlic, onion and sugarcane. His brother, Dattatreya, is on the run. The estimated price of the crop is Rs 1.76 lakh."
The farmer cultivated the poppy as intercrop since its smell mixes with the smell of onion and garlic and becomes difficult to identify, Desai said.
Bhosale was produced before court and remanded to police custody till March 12.
The Osmanabad district police on Thursday had raided a farm and arrested a farmer, who was given police custody till March 12.
Meanwhile, the Beed police have detained one more person from Nanded on the suspicious of his involvement in opium trafficking across the state borders, said Shrikant Dhiware, additional superintendent of police, Beed district.
Shamrao Dighawkar, superintendent of police, said, "A team is sent to Nanded city to find out whether poppy was traded widely in Nanded city. The information we have received points out to Nanded as many middlemen used to buy poppy from Parli (Beed) and Shirala (Sangli) and transport it to Nanded for further processing. We are yet to establish that purchased poppy was sent to Andhra Pradesh for making opium from it."
Poppy cultivation is banned by the Union government, but allowed in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh under the strict guidance of Union government.
The Beed police have already arrested Satnam Singh from Nanded under the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substance Act, 1985 on March 5. Nanded is the only district in the state where restricted trade of opium is permitted by the state government.
Collector of Nanded, Shrikar Pardeshi told TOI, "The Sikh community said that they consume small amount of opium traditionally; hence state government, in 1972, has issued licenses for consumption and trading. Satnam Singh, who was arrested, does not hold either of the licences."
Nanded is an important holy place for the Sikh and is famous for the Hazur Sahib Gurudwara. There are around 30,000 Sikhs in the city, which has a total population of six lakh, he said.
Why Black Market
The Union government issues licences every year for poppy cultivation in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, where buy-back rate ranges from Rs 1,500 to Rs 2,200 per kg. The pricing is linked to the quality of the produce. The crop is sold at Rs 10,000 per kg in black market.
Times of India
