Overview
- Authorities on Tuesday identified illegal opium cultivation on more than two acres in Balrampur-Ramanujganj, sealed the site and said further action will involve the NCB, NDPS enforcement teams and forensic experts.
- Days earlier, police in Durg arrested BJP functionary Vinayak Tamrakar and two others under the NDPS Act after seizing opium plants valued at roughly Rs 8 crore from a Samoda farmhouse.
- Tamrakar has told investigators a domestic help was responsible, a claim police are treating skeptically, with three accused in custody and two more at large.
- District officials in Samoda demolished an illegally built shop run by Tamrakar’s brother following an eviction order, describing the move as part of an anti-encroachment drive.
- The opposition Congress accused the state government of complicity and demanded the home minister’s resignation, citing a sarpanch’s claim of a January alert, as 29 Congress MLAs were briefly suspended over protests in the Assembly before the order was revoked.