On August 2, a man and woman from West Bengal—Humayun Kabir, 21, and Rimpa Khatun, 26—were arrested at the Cantonment railway station in central Bengaluru after they arrived on the Prashanti Express, which plies daily between Bhubaneswar in Odisha and the Karnataka capital.
The young couple from Murshidabad district were detained on the first platform after Karnataka railway police officials found their behaviour suspicious. A search of their two bags revealed the presence of 21.16 kg of ganja, officials said.
The investigations in the case, in which a chargesheet was filed on November 11, revealed that the young couple would fly to Odisha from Bengaluru on a regular basis and return by train with large consignments of ganja in their baggage, according to the railway police.
A portion of the ganja brought to Bengaluru would be packed and transported by train to Kerala for sale by the couple, who were employed in a plywood enterprise, while another portion would be handed to peddlers in Bengaluru, railway police officials said.
The railways have emerged in recent years as the primary mode for transporting ganja from Odisha and the border regions of Andhra Pradesh to Bengaluru, with the quantum of ganja being seized every year at railway stations in Bengaluru constantly rising, according to the railway police.
The number of cases registered under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act by the Karnataka railway police, specifically over the seizure of ganja from travellers, has risen from 12 in 2021 to 64 in the current year, while the number of people arrested has jumped from 14 in 2021 to 59.
“The transportation of ganja has seen a major rise in recent years. It is mostly being transported through personal baggage and backpacks by travellers in the unreserved compartments travelling from Odisha and its bordering regions,” said Sathish Kumar, Deputy Superintendent of Police.
While 220 NDPS cases have been registered since 2021, the total quantity of contraband seized is 2,163 kg, valued at Rs 16.57 crore, with over Rs 5 crore’s worth of ganja seized on an annual basis in the past three years.
Most arrests made at Byappanahalli railway station
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In the current year, out of the 58 cases registered so far, the majority of the ganja seizures and arrest have occurred at the Byappanahalli railway station, known as the Sir M Visvesvaraya Terminal (SMVT), in east Bengaluru, which began operations in 2022 and is the main rail terminal for trains from the eastern parts of India like Odisha, West Bengal, Tripura, and Assam.
Fourteen drug cases have been registered at the Byappanahalli railway police station over the past year for the transportation of 89 kg of ganja valued at Rs 67.50 lakh, while 78 kg of the drug has been seized in 12 cases at the city railway station and 106 kg in 10 cases at the Bengaluru Cantonment railway station.
“The railway police in Karnataka are conducting checks on the basis of suspicion of passengers arriving in unreserved seats on trains from Odisha and Andhra Pradesh. There should be checks at boarding stations as well to regulate the flow of ganja,” a railway police official said.
Twenty-three of the 58 NDPS cases registered in the last year at three Bengaluru railway police stations involved passengers who arrived on the Prashanti Express, which operates daily.
“There is a big market for ganja in Bengaluru. It is widely consumed by migrant workers as well and is supplied as a job perk by their contractors in some cases. The ganja is also moved from Bengaluru to other places like Kerala by road,” a railway police official said.