Man arrested with 56 kg. ganja at Secunderabad Railway Station

An inter-State drug peddler transporting 56.28 kilograms of ganja worth ₹14.07 lakh from Odisha to Pune via Secunderabad Railway Station was arrested by the Secunderabad Railway Police and Railway Protection Force (RPF) on Tuesday.

The accused was identified as Laxman Sambhaji Mogal, a 36-year-old agricultural labourer from Warkute village in Pune. Efforts are under way to trace his accomplice, Manoranjan Das, also a resident of Pune.

Investigations revealed that Mogal lost his left hand in a train accident in 2006, which significantly affected his employment opportunities. Struggling to make ends meet, he sought alternative means of earning money. Upon learning that he could earn ₹5,000 per trip by transporting the contraband from Odisha to Maharashtra via train, he obtained Manoranjan Das’s contact details from an unknown person and was subsequently recruited for the operation.

Mogal had already completed three trips in January, earning ₹5,000 for each. On February 2, he travelled to Chatrapur Railway Station in Ganjam district where an unidentified individual handed him three bags filled with ganja. He boarded the general coach of the Konark Express and began his journey towards Pune.

However, his operation was thwarted when the train arrived at Platform 10 of Secunderabad Railway Station at approximately 11:20 a.m. on Monday, where the police arrested him.