Dhaba owner arrested for selling opium poppy husk to truck drivers on Hyderabad-Vijayawada highway

Key Highlights

• The accused, 24-year-old Gurmeet Singh, owner and manager of ‘Doon Punjabi Dhaba’, is a native of Bheemawala Road, Babugarh, Vikasnagar in Dehradun district of Uttarakhand.
• Police said his father had been running the dhaba for the past 12 years but returned to his native place due to ill health, after which Singh took over the business about one-and-a-half years ago.
• Investigators said Singh took advantage of the demand for opium poppy husk among North Indian truck drivers halting on the highway and began illegally procuring and selling the narcotic substance.
• He allegedly purchased the contraband at ₹1,800 per kg and sold it to truck drivers at ₹6,000 per kg, earning a profit of ₹4,200 per kg.
• Following sustained surveillance, a joint team of the EAGLE Force and Nalgonda police conducted a raid at the dhaba and recovered narcotics from a storeroom.