District Task Force officials seized 108 plants being cultivated secretly among cotton, turmeric and red gram crops in Vikarabad during inspections on Tuesday.
| Photo Credit: By Arrangement
Excise teams in Vikarabad, Sangareddy and Hyderabad have made a series of arrests and seizures in coordinated actions against ganja cultivation and transport, recovering more than 110 plants and over 3.6 kg of dry ganja in separate operations. Officials also seized a car, mobile phones and illicit produce valued at over ₹23 lakh in total.
In Vikarabad, the District Task Force officials discovered 108 ganja plants being cultivated secretly among cotton, turmeric and red gram crops during inspections on Tuesday. Officials estimated that the plants would have yielded between 20 and 25 kg of dried ganja, valued at approximately ₹12 lakh.
Excise Superintendent Vijaya Bhaskar Goud has written to the District Collector seeking suspension of Rythu Bandhu benefits for farmers found cultivating ganja.
The plants were traced to fields belonging to two individuals, identified as Errolla Prabhakar and Errolla Pentaiah in Barwad village of Kotepally mandal. Excise personnel found evidence that some mature vegetative plants had already been harvested and sold.
A case has been booked by the Tandoor excise police and investigation is under way.
In a separate operation in Sangareddy district, excise officials intercepted a car transporting ganja from Odisha. The inspections, conducted near Andhra Colony at Sri Venkateswara Garden on NH-65 in Malkapur, led to the seizure of 1.7 kg of ganja.
The team also seized ganja worth ₹50,000, a car valued at ₹11 lakh and three mobile phones worth another ₹50,000. Three men, identified as J. Arun Nayak, L. Sai Pranay and N. Vijayender were arrested, while another suspect from Odisha remains absconding.
Meanwhile, in Hyderabad, the State Task Force (STF) – A team seized 1.2 kg of ganja in the Mallepally and Office Nagar areas near Nampally Railway Station.
A man identified as H. Sumit was arrested and a case has been booked naming other accused, identified as Upadhyaya Biju, Chanda, Ajay, Niranjan and Sohal, who are currently at large.
The seized ganja was handed over to the Nampally excise station for further probe.
Published – December 09, 2025 08:07 pm IST
