Rats ate more than 500 kilograms of marijuana kept at police warehouses, the police of Uttar Pradesh’s Mathura city recently told a court when asked to produce the seized drugs.
The police had confiscated the drugs, said to be worth Rs 60 lakh, from a truck in 2020 and booked the accused persons under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.
The marijuana was stored at warehouses in the Highway and Shergarh police stations.
The Mathura police spoke about a rat infestation in a report submitted after a court order, India Today reported. The order was issued on November 18.
In it, judge Sanjay Chaudhary said all of the marijuana stored at Mathura police stations was at risk from rats and the only way to save the stash was to sell it to research labs, the BBC reported.
In May 2020, three men smuggling weed in a truck were arrested in Mathura. The truck was intercepted near Jatwari village in the Shergarh area and 386 kg of weed hidden in millet bags was recovered from the vehicle. The three accused were booked under the NDPS Act and sent to judicial custody.
“The SHOs of Shergarh and Highway police stations have claimed that 581 kg of weed stored in warehouses was destroyed by the rats. The cops have been finding it impossible to protect substances kept in the said storage areas. The court has ordered the police to produce evidence regarding the claim and set November 26 as the next hearing date,” said the special public prosecutor Ranveer Singh.
