The Maharashtra Police has arrested two German nationals from a private bungalow at Wai town in Satara district of western Maharashtra for allegedly cultivating Cannabis (Ganja) at home.
Acting on a tip-off that about two foreigners staying at bungalow at Nandanvan Park owned by a local resident and conducting themselves in a suspicious manner, the Satara raided the place on Tuesday and found that large quantities of Ganja being grown inside half-a-dozen rooms, on the roof and outside.
The police arrested two German nationals – identified as Sergis Victor Manca (31) and Sebastian Stein Muller (25) – from the bungalow they raided.The two arrested German nationals were later produced before a court, which remanded them in police custody till February 20.
During the raids, the police seized 29 kgs of home-grown Ganja worth around Rs. 3-lakh, all packed in bags.
The police also recovered sophisticated artificial lighting equipment, LED lights, laptops, mobiles, etc from the bungalow.
During the course of the raids, one of the German nationals tried to flee the bungalow only to be caught by the police personnel present.
The Satara police have, meanwhile, experts with knowledge of Ganja cultivation from Pune to assist them in the investigations.
The preliminary investigations have revealed that both Manca and Muller are history-sheeters who had been arrested in a drugs case by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) in Goa in 2017.
Subsequently, the Bombay High Court (Goa Bench) had released them on bail on a condition that they would henceforth live in Satara district.
As per the orders issued by the high court in 2017, the two German nationals had deposited their passports with the Goa Police.
As a consequence, they cannot leave the country till the case registered by the NCB is pending against them.
“As part of our investigations, we have asked the Goa Police to give us details of the passports and visas of the two arrested German nationals,” Satara’s District Police Superintendent Ajaykumar Bansal said.
The Satara police are trying to ascertain if the two arrested German nationals had developed a network of peddlers and customers to sell the Cannabis grown by them during their stay at the bungalow lasting more than 18 months.