Rajkot: The Bhavnagar police have unearthed a massive cannabis cultivation with the value of seizure pegged at Rs 11 crore, making it the highest such bust of illegal cultivation in Gujarat in the recent times.The police arrested two brothers – Sanjay alias Munna Chauhan (55) and Bogha (53) – and booked them under the relevant provisions of the NDPS Act. Acting on a tip-off, teams of Sihore police station raided the agricultural field on the outskirts of Sakhavadar village. Senior officials said the cannabis plants had been interspersed among vegetable crops and castor plantations to avoid detection.Bhavnagar district superintendent of police (DSP) Nitish Pandey said, “Bogha was addicted to opium and his brother often procured it for him. However, the avalibility started getting scarce and that’s why they started cultivating cannabis.” Police said the brothers were present at the farm. During questioning, they reportedly confessed to cultivating cannabis and opium on their land.Sihor police inspector B D Jadeja said, “On Feb 22, we received information about the brothers illegally cultivating opium on the farm between Sakhavadar and Sargam villages . We seized 1,087.52 kg of green opium poppy plants, 26.06 kg of dried poppy husk, and close to 19 kg of green cannabis plants. The total seizure is valued at Rs 10.92 crore.The FIR was lodged by H V Goswami (41), an assistant sub-inspector of Sihor police stationThe duo was produced in court and remanded in police custody for three days.Officials said they will probe how long the illegal cultivation had been underway, where the accused planned to sell the processed opium and cannabis.
