A probe into a one-of-its-kind drugs bust in Pune in which the police seized over 8 kg of Catha edulis, also known as Khat, from a Yemeni national has revealed that the man was mainly selling the stimulant narcotics to foreign nationals in the city, officials have told The Indian Express.
A team from the Anti Narcotics Cell (ANC) of the Pune police was working on a tip-off that a foreign national was selling contraband drugs from his house in an upmarket residential society in Kondhwa. After verifying the input, a raid was conducted earlier on Wednesday and a 29-year-old Yemeni national was detained.
The police recovered from his possession around 8.4 kg of Khat, valued at Rs 8.7 lakh in illegal markets. He was subsequently placed under arrest. This is the first seizure from Pune of Khat, which was included in the list of scheduled drugs under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act in 2018.
тАЬThe investigation into the seizure revealed that the arrested suspects used to get the drug from people who come to India from Yemen for medical treatment. The further probe into the case suggests that the accused mainly sold the drug to foreign nationals in Pune,тАЭ said senior inspector Vinayak Gaikwad of the ANC.
From the arrested accused, the drug was recovered in three forms тАФ dried leaves, powder of dried leaves and undried leaf stems.
Khat or Al Qat is a flowering plant which is native to some areas of southern and eastern Africa, and the Arabian peninsula. The drug acts as a stimulant and also results in euphoria and loss of appetite. While the World Health Organisation had listed it as a тАШdrug of abuseтАЩ in 1980, it was not banned in India until 2017.
Officials said the drug is openly consumed in many African countries as well as in Yemen.
