5 kg of charas hidden in knee caps under sarees, two women held at UP station: DRI

The packets were hidden under sarees, wrapped around the women’s thighs in knee caps as they travelled by train from Bihar to Punjab. The concealment failed at Gorakhpur railway station, where Directorate of Revenue Intelligence officials arrested the two women and a third passenger.

The DRI said its team acted on specific intelligence late Thursday and searched the three passengers travelling on the Amarnath Express from Sugauli in Bihar to Ludhiana in Punjab. Officers found 11 packets containing a blackish substance concealed beneath the women’s sarees. A field test identified the substance as charas.

The agency said the seized drug was Nepal-origin charas and estimated its value at around ₹5.08 crore. Officials said the substance commands high demand in illicit drug markets.

The DRI seized the 5.088 kg consignment under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985. It arrested all three passengers for their alleged involvement in trafficking and is now examining where the charas came from, where it was headed and whether a wider network helped move it. Officials described the seizure as part of the agency’s continuing crackdown on cross-border narcotics trafficking through the region.