A Chatra police team on Saturday arrested nine brown sugar smugglers including a member of the state executive committee of the BJP's youth wing.

The team, formed by Chatra superintendent of police, Rishav Kumar Jha, acted on a tip off and recovered 296 gram of brown sugar, a car, a bike, 8 mobile phones and Rs 7.74lakh from their possession.

According to sources, Jha received information that one Dheeraj Kumar residing near Kesri Chowk was carrying brown sugar to supply to its customer. The police team caught Dheeraj with 2.10 gram of brown sugar.

Dheeraj, during interrogation, named one Amit Gupta as his supplier. Police conducted a raid at Dheeraj's house but he was not found there. The team traced his mobile number and found out that he was coming to town from Hazaribagh in his SUV.

A trap was laid and Amit was caught near Heru River on Chatra-Chouparan road on Thursday night. Other than Amit, police caught Himanshu Kumar, the BJP leader, Anurag Kumar and Chandan Kumar also from the SUV. Police team found 3.20 gram of brown sugar and Rs 7.74lakh in cash.

Amit said he was purchasing brown sugar from Nawal Dangi and Prem Dangi of Giddhore.

Car of the arrested BJP leader in Chatra. Picture by Vishvendu Jaipuriar

Police made Amit call the duo demanding more brown sugar. Amit was taken to Giddhor and as Nawal and Prem came to Giddhore Chowk to supply the consignment of brown sugar, they were also arrested. After raids carried out at the duo's home, police found 32gram of brown sugar.

When Prem and Nawal were interrogated, they revealed the name of Roshan also known as Bhagirath Dangi of Tetaria village under Pathalgadda block as the supplier. Police immediately raided Roshan's house where 10 gram of brown sugar was found. Jha said Amit, Roshan and Prem also named one Abhishek Thakur as supplier who was nabbed from Bakchunba village under Rajpur police station with 240 gram brown sugar.

Jha said from May 1 2020 to June 10, 2021, police have recovered 572kg of opium, around 2.5kg of brown sugar and more than nine quintals of marijuana from smugglers.