After Liquor-loving Rats of Bihar, Mumbai Rodents Consume Seized Narcotic Drugs Worth Rs 3.4 Crore

After consuming 9 lakh litres of alcohol which the Bihar police had seized from people flouting prohibition laws in the state, rodents have now reportedly consumed 34 kg of drugs from customs godown at Sewri in Maharashtra.

The contraband worth Rs 3.4 crore in international market went missing from the godown in Sewri in 2014.

The stolen drugs were part of a nearly 200-kg stash of the ‘party drug’ ketamine that the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) had seized from Andheri in June 2011, in the Konduskar case. Abhijeet Konduskar of Konduskar Travels had been arrested in the case along with several others for illegal drug trade. The police had seized a total of 1,000 kg ketamine from Mumbai and Sangli, Mid-Day reported on Saturday.

The drug seized in Mumbai was kept in the Nanavati godowns, where the central enforcement agencies keep their seized and confiscated goods, says the report. The godown is located right opposite Sewri police station.

According to the FIR filed in 2014, seven of the 20 sealed packets of seized ketamine were found to be torn and considerably lighter.

“On June 17, 2014, a DRI officer and an additional magistrate had visited the godown. They found that while 13 packets were intact, the weight of ketamine in the remaining seven was less. The packets were torn and 34.14 kg was found stolen,” the report quotes Purshottam Nimje, senior customs officer, as writing in the FIR lodged under section 380 (theft in dwelling house) of the Indian Penal Code.

After investigating the case from “all possible angles”, investigators did not find any leads. They have now closed the case by filing a report titled ‘A Summary’ – which acknowledges that the case as true, but undetected.

Earlier, there were reports that rats had finished off over 9 lakh litres of alcohol which the police had seized from people following the implementation of prohibition laws in Bihar. The seized liquor bottles were missing from police malkhanas (stores).

It was said that some of the seized bottles had been destroyed, and what was left in the store was consumed by liquor-loving rats.

Soon after this claim was made, Patna Senior Superintendent of Police Manu Maharaj paid a surprise visit to police lines. Guess what happened next? He found that two police officers were heavily drunk. They were promptly arrested.