After last week’s disclosure by the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT) on black money that huge amounts of black money have been recovered from Maoists; Odisha DGP Dr RP Sharma on Monday confirmed that ganja worth over Rs 10 lakh was recently seized from Maoists in Malkangiri district while the contraband was being transported to Punjab.
Replying to a query of reporters here, the DGP said Maoists are now engaged in heavy hemp cultivations in the cutoff areas of Malkangiri, Koraput and Jaypore and trade in illegal narcotics drugs is now the only economic source of these radical forces.
“Odisha police with the help of multiagency squads will completely destroy the hemp cultivation this year,” the DGP said.
“The local police are constantly keeping a strong vigil on hemp cultivation in these districts; and we have a target to destroy more such cultivations this year,” the DGP said, adding that last year hemp cultivations in over 4,500 acres of land in the State were destroyed. He also pointed out that the Narcotics Control Bureau and the State Excise Department are also tracking drug traffickers.
After a high-level meeting here on June 19, SIT Vice-Chairman Justice Arijit Pasayat had indicated that generation of black money and accumulation of properties by the Maoists would be under the scanner of the SIT on black money as it has come to the notice of agencies that some Maoist leaders have made huge fortunes by way of extortion, loot and trade in narcotics drugs.