Thrissur: The Thrissur city police have nabbed ganja mafia leader Namita Pareechu (32), notorious known as ‘ganja rani’, from Odisha.
An investigation into the source of the 221 kg of ganja that was seized from Chiyyaram in Nedupuzha, led the police to Chudangpur at Adaba in Gajapati district of Odisha.
Nedupuzha SHO T G Dilip and team stayed in various areas of Odisha for 10 days before apprehending Namita and her accomplice Arun Naik (25).
The Nedupuzha police had seized 221 kg of ganja, being smuggled in a car, on May 5. After a detailed interrogation of the four-member gang, the police found that there was ganja cultivation in the remote village of Adaba in Gajapathi district of Odisha and that the ganja was procured from there.
A special team was formed to nab the accused. The team found that Namita's husband Sajan Thomas was from Kerala and that he was the middleman for the ganja being smuggled into Kerala. Sajan, who came to Kerala on June 14 to collect the money for the ganja, was arrested from Palakkad. Sajan, who has been living in Odisha for 20 years, seldom comes to Kerala.
In his statement, Sajan said there was ganja cultivation in the Gajapathi, Ganjam and Rayagada districts and the buds were being smuggled to Kerala by Namita Pareechu. The police team then left for Odisha and took Sajan along with them. The team nabbed one of Namita's aides from Brahmapur, and he led the police to Chudangpur. After arresting Namita and Arun, the police obtained the transit warrant from the court and traveled 1,800 km by road to reach Thrissur. The accused have been remanded.
