Nagpur Crime Branch seizes Rs 1.54 crore of goods in MD drugs raid, held accused Phalli Gupta

The Nagpur Crime Branch has made a major breakthrough in the case of firing at the house of Congress corporator Shubham Motghare. While searching for Vishal alias Phalli Gupta, who was absconding in the case, police got the location of his associates. A flat in Narendranagar was then raided, and a large quantity of MD drugs was recovered.

Police kept the area under constant watch and, acting on precise information, raided a flat in Vijaya Apartment in the Narendranagar area. According to police, Phalli was running his drug network from this flat. Five peddlers were caught here. A search found 1,405 grams of mephedrone (MD) on them.

The arrested accused are Aniket alias Annu Sanjay Bihare (19), Shubham alias Doraemon Dilip Narwariya (31), Krishna Sunil Verma (19), Toofan Singh Balu Singh Sisodia (38) and Rahul Ramkumar Gond (32). Police also seized six mobile phones, a car, four two-wheelers, an electronic weighing scale and Rs 3.44 lakh in cash from them. The total value of the seized goods is Rs 1.54 crore.

Police arrested Phalli and his girlfriend Saheli alias Sonu Pandhram on the way to Rameswaram. Phalli had got the house of corporator Shubham Motghare in Shravannagar fired upon on August 26. He is the main accused in that case. Police had then arrested seven accused and acted under MCOCA, but some accused, including Phalli, Saheli Pandhram, Aniket Bihare and Ashok Babaji Yadav, were absconding. Police were also looking for Phalli in some other cases.

The Crime Branch had received information that Phalli came to Nagpur during Navratri and also visited the Koradi temple for darshan. Police had been on his trail since then. Two days ago, police learnt that he was in Rameswaram, and a team was sent there at once. Phalli and Saheli were travelling by bus towards Rameswaram when police caught them on the way.

The operation was carried out by PI Vinayak Golhe and his team under the guidance of DCP Deepak Agrawal and ACP Vaibhav Jadhav. Through technical investigation, police had got a lead on Bihare, and the team, tracing him, reached the flat in Vijaya Apartment.

According to police, the MD drugs were brought to Nagpur from Rajasthan for sale. Bhupendra Singh of Rajasthan had supplied the consignment to the accused. To evade police, the accused used WhatsApp and Instagram calls.

A case has been registered under the NDPS Act at Beltarodi police station on the complaint of a policeman. Beltarodi police are investigating further. A team will soon leave for Rajasthan to look for Bhupendra Singh.