Dhaba owner arrested for selling opium poppy husk to truck drivers on Hyderabad-Vijayawada highway

The EAGLE Force, Telangana, in coordination with the Chityal police in Nalgonda, arrested a roadside dhaba owner for allegedly selling opium poppy husk to long-distance truck drivers on the Hyderabad Vijayawada National Highway. 

The operation was carried out on Friday, January 9, following specific and credible intelligence about illegal narcotics being sold from a dhaba near Chityal village.

The accused, 24-year-old Gurmeet Singh, owner and manager of ‘Doon Punjabi Dhaba’, is a native of Bheemawala Road, Babugarh, Vikasnagar in Dehradun district of Uttarakhand. Police said his father had been running the dhaba for the past 12 years but returned to his native place due to ill health, after which Singh took over the business about one-and-a-half years ago.

Investigators said Singh took advantage of the demand for opium poppy husk among North Indian truck drivers halting on the highway and began illegally procuring and selling the narcotic substance. 

He allegedly purchased the contraband at ₹1,800 per kg and sold it to truck drivers at ₹6,000 per kg, earning a profit of ₹4,200 per kg.

Following sustained surveillance, a joint team of the EAGLE Force and Nalgonda police conducted a raid at the dhaba and recovered narcotics from a storeroom. During questioning, the accused reportedly disclosed that he had procured 20 kg of opium poppy husk, out of which nine kg was seized during the operation. Police said the seized quantity falls under the intermediate quantity category under the NDPS Act.

The accused along with the seized contraband was handed over to Chityal police station for further legal action.