Navi Mumbai: The driver of the SUV that crashed into a traffic island at the Nerul signal on Palm Beach Road on May 22, leading to the recovery of 69 kilograms of opium valued at Rs 70 lakh and a country-made pistol loaded with six bullets, has been remanded to jail custody, according to a police officer familiar with the case.
The NRI Coastal police also traced the supplier of the opium and arrested him from Rajasthan last week. The supplier has also been sent to jail custody, the officer stated.
The officer revealed that the SUV driver, identified as Ganpat Birbal Ram, was detained from a hotel in Jodhpur. Police tracked him down after his driving license was discovered in the damaged SUV from which the drugs and the loaded firearm were recovered. The address on the license was Motaniya Nagar, a rural village in the Osian tehsil of Jodhpur district, Rajasthan.
Since the SUV bore a Jodhpur RTO registration, police obtained the registered mobile number of the license holder and confirmed that the vehicle, an MG Hector, was registered in the name of Ganpati Birbal Ram. Two police teams were formed to trace him. One team tracked his mobile tower location, but the device was switched on intermittently. Another team proceeded to his Jodhpur address, but he did not arrive there. The police team camped in Jodhpur for six days and coordinated with the tracking team. Upon receiving information that his mobile tower location indicated a hotel in Jodhpur, the police team reached the hotel and detained him on Thursday evening.
The officer explained, “The SUV driver Ram, after fleeing the accident scene, had been changing his location and kept his mobile phone switched off most of the time. To escape to Jodhpur, he borrowed a car from a friend residing in Navi Mumbai. The police team escorting the accused Ram from Jodhpur to Navi Mumbai will arrive late Friday night. Thereafter, he will be arrested in the FIR registered under the NDPS Act, the Arms Act, and BNS sections for rash and negligent driving on a public way, endangering human life or public safety, and causing damage to public property. After arresting the accused Ganpat Ram, he revealed the identity of the opium supplier from whom he had procured opium from Madhya Pradesh, where opium cultivation is legally permitted for medicinal and industrial purposes, subject to strict state government licensing and regulations. However, the accused misused the opium cultivation for indulging in drug peddling. We are further probing the involvement of other accused in the drug supply racket.”
