State excise officials seized cash of Rs 80 lakh and detained a person in this connection during a crackdown near the Tangi tollgate here on Friday.
A team of excise officials of Cuttack district suspecting ganja trafficking near the toll plaza conducted a raid and recovered the cash from a person identified as Sukumar Sahoo, who was travelling in a private bus from Cuttack to West Bengal.
“One of my relatives gave me Rs 80 lakh to hand it over to someone in West Bengal,” the accused told media.
The Cuttack Sadar Excise Inspector said, “We were frisking buses near the Tangi tollgate yesterday night. While checking one bus ‘Indrani’ en route to Kolkata from Cuttack, we caught one person, who was with two airbags and suspected narcotic items inside it. We found Rs 80-lakh cash wrapped in four paper packets. We detained the person for investigation to ascertain whether the amount he collected after selling any banned contraband like ganja, brown sugar or narcotic drugs,”
As per prima facie, the detained person received the money from his brother-in-law, who is into jewellery business in Cuttack city, and was travelling to Kolkata, the official said.
Earlier, the accused had visited twice with cash of Rs 50 lakh and Rs 60 lakh, respectively, police said.
The seized amount and the accused will be handed over to the Tangi police for further investigation.