Himachal: Associate of Rohru-based drug racket kingpin arrested

Himachal Pradesh: Police have arrested a key associate of Rohru-based drug racket kingpin Shahi Mahatma alias Shashi Negi, who was active in the Upper Shimla area. The accused has been identified as Harinder Manta (38), a resident of Chirgaon Dhak village in Shimla. He was currently living in Deoghat in Solan. Shimla SP Sanjeev Kumar Gandhi said Manta was arrested from Giripul in Sirmaur district. He said the accused, along with Negi, was running the drug racket for the last five-six years and had sold chitta worth about Rs 3 to 5 crore. “Negi and Manta were using R and M (Ranta and Manta) code to sell chitta. The code was printed on packets containing the banned substance,” he said. Shahi Mahatma alias Negi, a resident of Rohru, was arrested in September.

He was running a well-organised drug smuggling racket from Rohru. His network comprised 40 to 45 people and more than 25 of his associates have been arrested. Negi’s operations were mainly concentrated in the Upper Shimla area. Negi was the mastermind of the drug racket but he remained elusive as he avoided direct contact with buyers. He relied on a network of middlemen to handle transactions and frequently changed his hideouts and mobile phone numbers to avoid getting caught. Before selling the drugs, Negi’s associates would verify the buyers through their PAN and Aadhaar card details. He would add their names to a WhatsApp group for further coordination. Payments were made through UPI and the contraband was then dropped at designated locations. He was nabbed after a smuggler from Jammu and Kashmir was arrested with 486 grams of ‘chitta’.