Hyderabad: Excise sleuths have arrested six peddlers and seized 34.7 kilos of ganja from their possession at Gudimalkapur. Four of the accused are said to be from Odisha.

The Department of Prohibition and Excise on Thursday arrested six peddlers, including four from Odisha, on charges of possession of marijuana illegally.

The arrested were Narotam Sarkar (41), Prasanjit Biswas (25) and Debrata Chakrabarty (20), all natives of Malkangiri in Odisha, Khokan Haldar (33) of Gachibowli and from Odisha, Kanjara Shiva Shanker (26) of Serilingampally and Syed Sayeed (25), of Anjaiah Nagar in Gachibowli.

Acting on specific information, the excise enforcement sleuths kept a tight watch on the movements of the suspects at Gudimalkapur and arrested the six peddlers.

About 34.7 kg of the smuggled goods were recovered from the possession of the arrested persons, together with a car, rickshaw (TS 34 T 3309), which was said to be used for the transportation of ganja and five cell phones.

They were caught during a routine investigation conducted by the excise officials in Gudimalkapur. Assistant ban and excise duty (enforcement) N Anji Reddy said marijuana suppliers Golak Mandal (48) and Jagath alias Chandan (22), both natives of Malkangiri in Odisha, were still at large.

On interrogation, the accused revealed they had procured ganja from the absconding accused of Malkangiri. The arrested peddlers also confessed to the police that they had been procuring ganja from the Malkangiri forest area to sell it in Hyderabad and Maharashtra.

The six accused along with the seized contraband have been handed over to the Golconda prohibition and excise station officials for further investigation. The accused would be produced before the court from judicial remand.