The Pune Rural Police, who arrested an Ahilyanagar police constable for diverting and selling crystalline alprazolam seized in an earlier police action, said the accused misappropriated the drug by altering the seal of the seized inventory and replacing the quantity with another powder.
Until now, Pune The rural police seized 10.7 kg of tranquilizer alprazolam allegedly taken from a large consignment seized by the Ahilyanagar police in May last year. A joint investigation by Pune Rural Local Crime Branch and Shirur police station was launched following a specific intelligence input received on January 17.
The owner of an automobile workshop, Shadab Shaikh (41), was arrested in the early hours of January 18. Drugs weighing around 1,052 kg were confiscated. Initially, the Pune rural police suspected the substance to be mephedrone, but further investigation revealed that it was crystalline alprazolam.
Following the seizure, police obtained crucial clues pointing to wider drug trafficking. Investigators then zeroed in on a serving constable of the Ahilyanagar police. After gathering concrete evidence of his involvement in the illegal sale of drugs, he was arrested on Wednesday.
The accused officer has been identified as Shyamsundar Gujar (39), who was posted in the Local Crimes Division of Ahilyanagar police at that time and was assigned duties related to maintaining inventory of items seized in criminal cases. Gujar was arrested on January 21 and produced before a court in Shirur. With his arrest, the total amount of crystalline alprazolam seized increased to 10.7 kg, including the initial seizure of one kilogram.
Sandeep Singh Gill, Superintendent of Police, Pune Rural, said on Tuesday: “The investigation has so far established that constable Gujar, while on duty, misappropriated the drugs seized in another crime and sold them in the illicit market through the other four accused who have been arrested. As a procedure, the seized drugs are recorded in the seizure inventory and sealed as per the court order. And it can only be accessed by the staff and officers authorized to do so. In this case, The seized drugs were registered in the central seizure inventory (muddemal kaksha) of Ahilyanagar police. The arrested officer tampered with the seal, removed the drugs and replaced the quality with another powder, investigation revealed that he had removed these drugs in December last year.”
Gill added, “We are seeking permission from the court to open the seal again for the purpose of conducting an investigation. We will investigate how much the officers misappropriated and how much was left. We will also check if more drugs were misappropriated than we know. After Gujar took out the drugs, he and other suspects had made a plan to sell the alprazolam in the illegal market and then split the money. The seized drugs were in crystal form and they planned to sell them for Rs 10 to Rs 12 lakh per kilogram, but it is valued more in the international market.”
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He indian express It was earlier reported that the Pune Rural Police is investigating the officer’s alleged links within the police machinery, among other crucial leads.
Alprazolam is a prescription anxiolytic that belongs to the benzodiazepine category and is commonly misused for its sedative effects. Due to its high potential for abuse and dependence, the drug is regulated under India’s Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act when possessed or trafficked without a valid authorization.
In a major anti-drug crackdown in May last year, the Ahilyanagar police seized over 69 kg of alprazolam crystal and over 338 kg of raw materials used for its manufacture. The action came following intelligence input about smuggling of large quantities of drugs from Shrirampur town in Ahilyanagar district.
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