The Pimpri Chinchwad police has seized 197.781 kilograms of ganja from a truck and arrested the driver, identified as Gokul Aagey (28), a resident of Beed district of Maharashtra.
Police naik Manoj Rathod of the anti-narcotics cell of the Pimpri Chinchwad police crime branch lodged the first information report (FIR) in the case at the Chakan police station on Friday night.
A police team intercepted a truck near Santosh hotel on the Chakan–Shikrapur road around 11.15 am on Friday. During searches, cops recovered 197.781 kilograms of marijuana from the truck. Cops seized the sustance along with the truck and other items, all worth Rs 63.34 lakh.
The police arrested the truck driver and also booked two others identified as Arun Mohite and Dnyaneshwar Mohite of Pune district in the case under sections of the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.
The police said the seized opium consignment belonged to Arun and Dnyaneshwar, and they had asked Aagey to transport the contraband in his truck from Odisha.
The police has also launched a search for Arun and Dnyaneshwar, and further investigation is on.