Days after police arrested a BJP leader in Chhattisgarh’s Durg district for allegedly illegally in his distant relative’s field, he is learnt to have told investigators that a domestic help hired from Rajasthan five years ago is to blame. Investigators, however, are taking the claims with a pinch of salt, sources said.
The BJP leader, Vinayak Tamrakar, 58, was in charge of state coordination for rice milling processing work in the BJP’s farmers’ wing and was suspended by the party on the day of his arrest.
The visited the field on Tuesday and spotted scattered , while a tractor was being used to level the ground. The field is now guarded by a few armed policemen.
The opium, police said, was clandestinely planted between maize and wheat crops on a five-acre plot of land on the banks of the Shivnath river.
Tamrakar and his family own over 100 acres of ancestral land and a farmhouse in the village, and he was overseeing the family’s farming business. This land is in the name of two women who are distant relatives of Tamrakar. The women told police that they had not visited the farm in the last three years and that the land was under Tamrakar’s control.
Tamrakar, who was arrested on March 7, has denied all allegations, saying he had no idea about the opium plantation and pushing the blame onto his 27-year-old domestic help, it is learnt.
The domestic help, Vikas Bishnoi, has been arrested along with another domestic help, Manish Thakur, 45.
Two more accused are on the run. “Tamrakar hired Bishnoi in 2021 and provided accommodation to him near the same field,” a police officer said.
The three accused are currently in police custody.
During the raid on March 7, police seized opium plants collectively worth Rs 8 crore. The three arrested accused have been booked under the NDPS Act Sections 8 (Prohibition of Certain Operations) and 18 (Punishment for Contravention in Relation to Opium Poppy and Opium).
On Monday, 29 Congress MLAs were suspended by the Speaker of Chhattisgarh’s Legislative Assembly because they protested in the Well of the House after their demand for a discussion on the case was rejected. Their suspension was later revoked.
The case first came to light after former Chhattisgarh chief minister and Congress leader Bhupesh Baghel reached the farm on Saturday and posted photos and videos of the opium plantation on social media.
