For the first time the district police claimed that they have been able to establish a link between ganja smugglers and the banned CPI (Maoist), with the arrest of a ganja smuggler.
The police on Thursday arrested Kolakani Kamesh (36) of Maddigaruvu village of Boyathalli panchayat and subsequent investigation reportedly revealed a new angle to the Maoist movement and their nexus with ganja smugglers.
Till now we were suspecting the nexus but the Maoists had been denying the allegations about their direct connection with ganga cultivators and smugglers, said the OSD, Narsipatnam, Satish Kumar.
As per the police, Kamesh, who belongs to the Valmiki tribe, came in contact with one Prabhakar alias Ashok, who had worked with the Maoist party till about four years ago. Since then Kamesh had been procuring ganja from Prabhakar and his wife Lakshmi and selling it to traders in Odisha and Maharashtra.
The Maoist party used Kamesh to sell ganja and procure necessary items such as milk powder, tea, batteries and medicines from the traders, police said.
Contraband seized
He was caught while transporting Cordtex detonating wire, steel carriages, live detonators, nuts and bolts, ₹1.76 lakh cash and 24 kg of dry ganja.
He revealed that the Maoists had direct connection in ganja smuggling and it was one of their major sources of revenue, said Mr. Satish.
Two days ago, two tribal youth, Mondupalli Mohan Rao and M. Vijay Kumar, had stepped on landmines and died in the blast while taking their cattle to graze. Maoists were turning tribal youth into ganja smugglers, the police claimed.
