Daijiworld Media Network - Hamirpur

Hamirpur, Jul 16: In a disturbing case of drug addiction, a married woman from Himachal Pradesh's Hamirpur allegedly stole her father’s car and sold it for Rs 90,000 to buy chitta, a form of adulterated heroin, police said on Tuesday.

The woman, a mother of a four-year-old, was married and lived in Shimla but had been staying at her maternal home in Hamirpur. Her father filed a complaint with the police on June 28, claiming that his daughter, who is addicted to drugs, had fled the house with his car.

Though she returned after a few days and denied any knowledge of the vehicle, police questioning revealed that she had, in fact, stolen the car with the help of a male friend and sold it in Punjab’s Jalandhar.

The police later recovered the vehicle from McLeodganj in Himachal Pradesh. Both the woman and her accomplice tested positive for drug use and were taken into custody before being sent to judicial remand.

Following their release on bail, the woman returned home but has now gone missing again for the past two days, police said.

According to Arun Sharma, former director of the State Forensic Science Laboratory, chitta is a semi-synthetic opioid derived from heroin and is highly addictive. One gram of the drug sells for Rs 4,000 to Rs 6,000, often pushing users into crime and drug peddling to sustain their addiction.

Police said further investigation is underway, and efforts are being made to trace the missing woman.