Instagram friendship lands woman and friend behind bars
Hyderabad: Friendship on Instagram landed a woman and her friend into trouble after Secunderabad Railway Police (GRP) in coordination with the Railway Protection Force (RPF) arrested them for smuggling ganja from Visakhapatnam to Solapur in Maharashtra via Secunderabad railway station.
The arrested have been identified as Ishrat Bano, 20, of Madhya Pradesh and Kanchan, 21, of Chhattisgarh. The prime accused Raja of Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh is absconding.
The railway police said Bano and Kanchan were friends when they studied in the same school up to intermediate at Bilaspur. They became addicted to consuming alcohol and smoking cigarettes. Two years ago Bano developed a friendship with Raja on Instagram. Bano shared her problems, habits and status with Raja.
Raja suggested Bano to assist him in transporting ganja to Maharashtra offering her to pay Rs.1,000 per packet. Bano then agreed to the offer and helped Raja transport ganja thrice a month. Meanwhile, Kanchan often expressed her desire with Bano to go on a long trip.
Raja assigned the task of transporting ganja to Solapur. On January 16, 2025, Bano called Kanchan to come to Raipur for a trip to Solapur. During the journey, Bano revealed to Kanchan about the transportation ganja from Visakhapatnam to Solapur and convinced her by offering to share the earnings equally.
Thereafter, both Bano and Kanchan went to Visakhapatnam railway station from Raipur. Bano then2 took two back packs of dry ganja in eight packets from an unknown person. She handed over a bag to Kanchan and both boarded a general coach of Konark Express to reach Solapur.
On Friday at about 1.15 pm, the train arrived on platform one at Secunderabad station when the police nabbed them while moving under suspicious circumstances. As many as 17.767 kgs of dry ganja worth Rs.4.44 lakh and two mobile phones were seized from the possession of the arrested women.
