This story is from November 4, 2019

Himachal Pradesh: Cops trek six hours to raid charas makers, 31 held

In a late night raid on charas mafia in remote forest area of Parvati valley of Kullu district, a team of 29 cops have arrested 31persons, including 12 Nepalese, who were engaged in extraction of charas from hybrid cannabis plants. The raid involving the biggest number of arrests ever made under the NDPS Act in Himachal lasted for 17 hours. ​
Himachal Pradesh: Cops trek six hours to raid charas makers, 31 held
Raid was conducted at Pinsu Tach above Pini village, Parvati valley
MANALI: In a late night raid on charas mafia in remote forest area of Parvati valley of Kullu district, a team of 29 cops have arrested 31persons, including 12 Nepalese, who were engaged in extraction of charas from hybrid cannabis plants. The raid involving the biggest number of arrests ever made under the NDPS Act in Himachal lasted for 17 hours.
The raid was conducted at Pinsu Tach above Pini village of Parvati valley.
Police had to climb the steep terrain for six hours in the night to reach the target, where the accused were camping to produce charas. Police have seized 2.9kg charas, 12 cartridges, nearly one quintal of cannabis seeds, an axe, some sharp cutting tools and over 150 plastic wrappers used for packing charas. Over 5,000 cannabis plants were also found cultivated, which were being destroyed.
Kullu SP Gaurav Singh told the media on Sunday that a special team of 29 cops has been formed to destroy charas, hashish oil, ganja and other products of cannabis at its source. “The team was carrying out a recce of different parts of Kullu to get information about the areas where high-quality charas was being produced and to study the methods of extraction and ferrying of charas. The team discovered that charas mafia was active in Pini area of Parvati valley and Jana in Kullu. Led by inspector Suneel Shankhyan, the team including two women, planned to raid the remote area above Pini village on Friday night,” he said.
The team started at 1am, drove for two hours and climbed for six hours at 3am with help of torches. “The team reached the remote area where some Nepalese people had pitched 11 tents. They were engaged in extraction of charas, hashish oil and ganja. Cops in different groups raided all tents simultaneously and seized the contraband and other material. 12 cartridges were also found but a .12-bore gun is still to be recovered. All 31 accused, including five women, have been arrested. Four cases under Section 8 and 20 of the NDPS Act have been registered while a case under Arms Act has also been registered,” the SP said.
The 19 accused are residents of Pini area. Poshu Ram of Pini village used to visit the area every second day to collect extracted charas from eight the Nepaleses working on daily wages of Rs 500 each. Police said the cartridges were of Sonu, a local resident.
The SP added that police investigation revealed that the accused had been staying in different tents for the last few days. “Starting at 1am and ending at 6pm on Saturday, the raid lasted for 17 hours.” Kullu police have arrested seven persons in the last four days in seven different cases under the NDPS Act. Two of the accused told the police that they had extracted charas themselves in the jungle and were going to sell it.
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