Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Man held on charge of cultivating ganja

Thiruvananthapuram: The rural police have arrested a 40-year-old man on the charge of growing ganja plants on the terrace of his house.

The accused was identified as Babu of Mekkinkara House, near Aanadu, in Vilapilsala police station limits. Circle Inspector (Nedumangadu) Muhammad Shafi said the suspect had grown ganja plants in 32 earth and manure filled plastic sacks. The police said they confiscated 152 mature plants.

The CI said the house did not have a stairway leading to the terrace. The suspect accessed the terrace daily (for nurturing the plants) by climbing a tree growing nearby. Babu’s rather strange routine alerted his neighbours who, in turn, informed the police. The CI said the house was near the busy Vembilkooppu road.

The plants were nearly six feet tall and its tips could be seen from the road. Babu had told his relatives and neighbours that he was cultivating herbal plants. The CI said Babu had sourced the ganja seeds from Bhasi, a suspected drug peddler.

N. Mohanan, a taxonomy expert at the Tropical Botanical Garden and Research Institute, helped the police identify the plants. The police arrested Babu on the charge of violating the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act. He was produced before the court on Tuesday and remanded to 14 days in judicial custody.

Ganja plants are usually harvested when they flower within five months of planting. A mature plant yields up to one kilogram of ganja that could fetch more than Rs.5,000 in the clandestine drug market.

An acre of ganja plantation could easily yield nearly 1,600 kg of the drug. Drug cultivators get a profit of Rs.40 lakh and upwards from a single acre of ganja plantation, officials said.

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