Police Say Seized Drugs Were Meant for Local Sale
Key Points:
- Woman held near Jumar Pul bus stand with 89.32 grams of brown sugar
- Cash of Rs 20,000 and a mobile phone also seized from her
- FIR lodged under NDPS Act at Sadar Mesra police station
RANCHI – A woman travelling from Bihar was arrested near the Jumar Pul bus stand on Sunday afternoon after police recovered brown sugar worth nearly five lakh rupees from her possession.
Officers identified the accused as Munni Devi, 43, wife of Babla Ram. She lives near Devi Mandap in Kokar Bazar, Jamtarand, under the Sadar Mesra police station area.
Senior officers had received a tip-off on August 16 about a woman smuggling narcotics into the city. She was expected to arrive by bus from Bihar’s side.
The deputy superintendent of police, Sadar, then formed a raiding team on the input. However, the exact route she would take remained unclear to officers.
The team reached Jumar Pul bus stand and waited through the afternoon. Around 3:10 pm, a woman was spotted sitting alone in an auto-rickshaw.
She grew visibly anxious on noticing the approaching policemen. Moreover, she got down and tried to flee the spot on foot.
A woman constable in the raiding party managed to catch her after a brief chase. During interrogation, she disclosed her identity and address to the team.
A search of her black purse turned up 89.32 grams of brown sugar hidden inside a plastic pouch. Besides the drugs, officers also recovered a keypad mobile phone of the I-Tel brand.
The handset reportedly had a Jio SIM card fitted inside it. In addition, police seized Rs 20,000 in cash from her.
During questioning, the woman admitted to selling brown sugar at various intersections across Ranchi district. “She has been trading in narcotics at different locations in the district,” a police officer said, describing her statement during interrogation.
An FIR was registered at the Sadar Mesra police station under case number 384/26, dated August 16, 2026. The case invokes sections 21(B), 22(B), 23 and 29 of the NDPS Act.
Police said the investigation was continuing to identify her possible links to a wider narcotics network. Meanwhile, officers are also verifying whether she had supplied drugs to other peddlers operating in Ranchi district.
The case comes amid a broader crackdown on narcotics smuggling across Jharkhand. Officers in Ranchi CID raids have separately intensified action on other criminal cases this month.
Elsewhere in the state, police recently conducted a cannabis raid in Pakur under Operation Jivan. Three smugglers were also caught transporting contraband from Odisha to Jamshedpur earlier in the week.
In Jamshedpur, authorities have pushed a drug-free India awareness campaign in recent days. A separate case earlier this month saw a youth arrested with cannabis in the city.
