Tightening the opium belt in Madhya Pradesh
On the morning of August 28, a bus heading to Pratapgarh in Rajasthan was stopped soon after it began its journey from Madhya Pradesh’s Mandsaur district. A group of policemen in mufti entered the vehicle and deboarded an 18-year-old boy. Sohanlal Mirasi, a resident of Sarnon Ki Dhani village in Rajasthan’s Balotra district, was detained and later booked for illegally possessing 2.71 kilograms of opium.He was charged under Sections of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985. The event was recorded on the CCTV camera fitted on the bus. Sohanlal’s family approached the Madhya Pradesh High Court in Indore for his bail, armed with the 23-second footage, claiming that Sohanlal was empty-handed.On December 5, the High Court granted Sohanlal bail after his lawyer presented the footage. Justice Subodh Abhyankar remarked that the case filed at Mandsaur’s Malhargarh police station is “rather suspicious”. He summoned Mandsaur Superintendent of Police (SP) Vinod Kumar Meena to appear in the next hearing.On December 6, Meena suspended six police personnel, including the Malhargarh Station House Officer (SHO) Rajendra Panwar, two Sub-Inspectors and three constables, due to “procedural lapses”, while detaining and arresting Sohanlal. The case prompted the High Court to remark that the State police had “conveniently forgotten” the provisions of Sections 105 and 185 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, which lay out the procedures for search and seizure and audio-video recording of the process. It has now summoned the Principal Secretary of the State’s Home Department on January 12 “to apprise this Court about the steps taken to implement the aforesaid provisions”.While the M.P. police has faced backlash after the High Court’s stance, the case has brought into focus the opium cultivating regions of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, and the challenges the people engaged in the generations-old livelihood are now facing.One challenge is the illegal trade of opium and crushed poppy straw, locally known as doda chura. Farmers and other locals say that they live under the constant fear of getting booked on charges of illegal possession or being named as part of a smuggling chain. They allege that people are also caught on fake charges and money extorted from them even if they are innocent.Sohanlal’s older brother, Khartaram Jaat, also alleges that his brother was “held in illegal custody, beaten and tortured” for about five hours after he was detained, and “₹12 lakh was demanded from him”. He says Sohanlal had finished school a few months before and wanted to start preparations for the civil services. “He had gone to Mandsaur to visit the Pashupati Nath Temple,” he says, adding that his brother has been “depressed” since the bail and barely talks to anyone.Madhya Pradesh’s Malwa region — Mandsaur, Neemuch, and Ratlam — is under scrutiny of four enforcement agencies: the opium regulatory body the Central Bureau of Narcotics (CBN), the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), the M.P. police, and the Narcotics Wing. The CBN had lodged 114 cases under the NDPS Act in 2023. This increased to 145 in 2025 (until December 18). The other agencies have registered separate cases under the same Act.Opium-growing landsThe Malwa region in M.P., and Pratapgarh, Chittorgarh, and parts of Kota and Jhalawar districts in Rajasthan’s Mewar region, are known as the opium belt of India.The region produces nearly 85% of India’s legally-grown opium with licences issued by the CBN that functions under the Department of Revenue (DoR) of the Union Ministry of Finance. Some parts of Uttar Pradesh also grow opium.Opium, locally called afeem, is tied to family tradition and prestige. There’s a local saying: “Afeem ka patta ladke se badhkar hai,” (an opium licence is bigger than a son). Farmers, some of who have inherited the growing and trade from over 200 years ago, say the licence betters marriage prospects. Across villages in the area, land parcels are protected with fencing and sarees, and nets cover the plots from the top, so parrots do not get at the poppy seed. Cultivation begins after Deepavali and ends in March, close to Holi.The CBN issues licences and procures opium, and is also engaged in enforcement of licit production. Licences are of two types: opium gum (latex) and the concentrate of poppy straw (CPS). With the gum licence, farmers extract the opium latex by lancing poppy seed capsules, and sell it to the government. This is the traditional practice in India. In a CPS licence, the CBN procures the capsule on the poppy straw of about eight inches, including the stem and leaves. This was introduced by the Union Government in 2020-21.As per the data obtained from the CBN, 1,15,416 licences were issued to farmers in the three States in 2025. Of this, 75,333 were for gum and 40,083 were CPS ones. In Madhya Pradesh alone, 56,349 licences — 38,801 gum and 17,548 CPS — were issued this year.After procurement, the products are sent to the Government Opium and Alkaloid Works, Neemuch, a plant for processing opium and manufacture of alkaloids. Illicit networks and extortionIn Bajhkhedi village of Mandsaur’s Sitamau, Krishna Pal Singh Rathore, a 36-year-old farmer, allegedly killed himself in February 5, 2024, months after he was booked by the CBN in September, 2023, for alleged illegal possession of 11kg of poppy straw. His family says that in addition, about 2.4 quintal doda chura was found at his elder brother, Narendra Singh Rathore’s house. Neither had the required licences.“Narendra was suffering from cancer at the time. The officers threatened Krishna Pal that the entire quantity would be shown in the FIR lodged against him. This scared him. They demanded money and a deal was struck for ₹22 lakh. After he paid the money, he was assured that the case would be over in a few months,” a family member says on the condition of anonymity. “But the officer he had paid got transferred soon and the new person then demanded more money,” he says. After locals and members of the Rajput collective Karni Sena staged protests, about ₹15 lakh was returned after his death, he adds.In Ayodhya Basti of Mandsaur’s Piplia Mandi, Bhavna Kunwar, 48, runs a small kirana (daily needs) shop next to her tin-roof house. Her husband, Govardhan Singh Songara, 51, was arrested on November 19, 2025, by the CBN for allegedly being part of a smuggling chain of doda chura.
Bhavna Kunwar’s husband, Govardhan Singh Songara, was arrested in an NDPS case this year. She runs a kirana shop in Piplia Mandi in Madhya Pradesh’s Mandsaur district.
| Photo Credit:
A.M. Faruqui
Songara, who works as a driver for a local construction company, was booked under the NDPS Act, and was accused of driving a car as a pilot vehicle to a truck that was caught carrying 1,177 kg of doda chura in May.“My husband had no connection with opium. The red car he was driving crossed a nearby toll plaza twice on May 5, within half an hour of that truck’s crossing. There was no recovery from his vehicle or any other link,” Kunwar says.Jokchand, a former Congress leader, says that such cases put fear in people who feel they could be detained any time, and that threats are also made “just to settle scores”. “The local police contact everyone whose name pops up during an investigation. If a farmer’s name comes up, he mostly chooses to pay a hefty sum rather than having his name in a case and risk losing his opium licence. Others pay the money because they know they can be in jail for a long time and the conviction rate is high in these cases,” Jokchand explains, saying that the practice of ‘settling’ is locally called khada tod (instant deal).In Luhari village of Ratlam’s Jaora, Ambaram Singh, a 68-year-old farmer, says that due to the risks involved with opium cultivation, farmers have to take various precautionary and safety measures to avoid any legal troubles. “Once the crop begins to grow, 2-3 of us sleep there so that someone does not steal even a single plant or seed,” he says, pointing to his field where two women are working.Piling up of casesIn 2024, the Mandsaur police arrested 377 people in 146 NDPS Act cases. Until November 30, 2025, up to 448 people have been arrested in 163 cases. The police denies the allegations of extortion, while highlighting a crackdown on smuggling rackets involving multiple states. Nikhil Kumar Gandhi, Deputy Narcotics Commissioner, CBN Neemuch, also denies charges of any fake cases by his officers.Mandsaur SP Meena says that Sohanlal’s case is not fake and he did not admit to that in the court as reported by various media outlets. “All I admitted to was some procedural errors by some personnel who have been suspended. We have also arrested the man, Chandra Prakash Patidar of Piplia Mandi, who sold him the opium, and a man named Vikas Chaudhary from Jodhpur, who had sent Sohanlal here. These men have two NDPS cases each against them,” Meena says. The procedural lapses include late FIR filing and not informing the local police station after detaining Sohanlal from their jurisdiction.Another officer involved with the investigation cites evidence that Sohanlal visited Mandsaur eight times in the past month and a half. “We have gathered CCTV footage and human intelligence. He did not go to the temple but did visit about 50 villages in the region. Why would a student come here alone so many times and visit villages he claims to have no connection with?” the officer says.He adds that boys and men between 16 and 22 are being employed by smugglers to carry opium and doda chura. As per police data, at least 26 men around this age, including one minor, have been arrested by the police of Malhargarh sub-division in 2025. Many of them hail from Rajasthan.Dilip Patidar, founder of the Malwa Kisan Sangathan farmers’ collective and district president of the Kisan Sangharsh Samiti, says, “People here are so scared that if you ask someone to hold your bag on the roadside for a minute and say that you have to use the bathroom, they won’t do it. They fear that you could be carrying opium and they could get caught.”In Neemuch’s Kanawati sub-jail, out of the 441 convicted and under-trial inmates, 291 are lodged in cases under the NDPS act as of December 18, as per data obtained from the jail.A multi-State nexusThe police and CBN officers from the region say the major substance smuggled out of the region is doda chura, while opium is sold in smaller amounts. “A 10 are plot with gum licence produces opium latex between 8 and 12 kg. Some farmers only sell 7-8 kg to the CBN. This is the required amount. They keep the remaining amount to sell in the black market,” an officer says, requesting anonymity. The government rate is ₹1,500-2,000 per kg of opium latex. The black market pays ₹1.5-2 lakh, he adds.Doda chura used to be bought by the State’s excise department until 2016, when it was brought under the purview of narcotics laws and banned by the Union government. Police officers and farmers say the main problem began after poppy straw was banned.Officers explain that the destination of most of the doda chura smuggled out of the region is Punjab and Haryana, where it has been traditionally consumed as a drink. “Most cases are linked to four States: this region of M.P. where it’s bought, Punjab and Haryana where it is sold, and Rajasthan where most rackets operate from. Since this region is close to some prominent national highways, transport trucks are one of the main carriers used in smuggling,” the officer says, adding that due to the crackdown on trucks, smugglers have also started using smaller cars. Officers also highlight various challenges in tracking smugglers saying that they use fake identities, virtual or international numbers, or even communicate through gaming apps.
Farm labourers working in an opium field in in Bahi village of Mandsaur, M.P., where lancing of poppy seeds is under way.
| Photo Credit:
A.M. Faruqui
Officers say local farmers get caught in the middle of smuggling and crackdown through lucrative offers from smugglers and extortion by police personnel. “The doda chura they sell for ₹2-3 lakh (per quintal) is sold at much higher rates later. The prices shoot up massively as you move up the smuggling chain for opium and poppy straw. The farmers barely get any share of this, but end up getting caught in the mess,” he says.One officer agrees that some personnel have been involved in “extorting” money from those whose names come up in the smuggling chain.Gandhi says that the task of destroying the poppy straw does not fall with the CBN. “We are currently working on a proposal for the State Government to address this issue and take the responsibility of disposal of poppy straw in its control,” he adds.mehul.malpani@thehindu.co.inEdited by Sunalini Mathew
已发布: 2025-12-25 22:40:00
来源: www.thehindu.com
