Udupi: Brown Sugar Worth Rs 1.65 Crore Seized at Manipal, Four Caught
Daijiworld Media Network – Udupi (JN/PS)
Pic: Sudhir Badagubettu
Udupi, Nov 5: Coast Guard police on Friday November 4 night arrested four people for allegedly selling brown sugar worth Rs 1.65 crore at Manipal here. They also seized one kg of brown sugar from the foursome.
The arrested are Pramod Poojary of Saligrama, Mohammed Irfan of Hiriyadka, Santosh of Hassan and Sukumar of Barkur. There were seven of them but only four were caught while other threee escaped at the time of raid.
Udupi Coast Guard sources told Daijiworld that the raid operation took place on Friday November 4 at 10.30 pm. Acting on a tip off, the police team traced Mohammed Irfan, an auto rickshaw driver, waiting near a hotel in Malpe, and followed him to Manipal, where four people came in a car, and two others (Pramod Poojary and Sukumar) by bike.
Among them, Santosh was the dealer who had bought the brown sugar from Bangalore to sell it to the others. When the police raided the spot, they tried to escape but four of them were caught. Two of the three people who fled are Ganesh and Palaksha, as revealed by Santosh during interrogation.
Police found one kg of brown sugar in Santosh's bag, and six bundles of currency notes in Irfan's bag. The curious part is that only the top layer of the bundles contained notes of Rs 1000, while beneath, there were only plain papers made to look like currency.
Police also seized the car (KA 04 MD 4115) worth Rs 5 lac, the bike (KA 05 EG 2625) and the auto rickshaw (KA 20 B 8411) used by the accused.
The arrested are now in Manipal police custody.
Coast Guard CPI P M Divakar led the operation with his staff. Investigations are on.