Overview
- A white MG Hector crashed and was abandoned on Palm Beach Road near Akshar Signal in the early hours of Friday after hitting a parked scooter and roadside structures.
- Police who inspected the SUV found five sacks containing about 69.95 kg of dried light-brown fragments suspected to be opium-poppy pods and a country-made pistol with six live cartridges.
- An FIR has been registered under the NDPS Act, the Arms Act, the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act and the Motor Vehicles Act, and investigators have estimated the seizure’s illegal-market value at roughly ₹69.95 lakh.
- Officers recovered a driving licence naming Ganpat Birbal Ram but reports give conflicting occupant names, the identified driver has fled, and a manhunt and searches are under way.
- Police are probing the crash cause — possible brake failure, tyre burst or rash driving — and have begun forensic tests to confirm the substance and examine whether the vehicle was part of a wider trafficking network.