Woman cop spends 45 days in disguise to bust drug factory

THANE: A female assistant police inspector of the crime branch, Thane, changed her identity and spent nights in a cow shed in Varanasi to hunt down a drug kingpin. After arresting the kingpin’s helpers, she and the police team confiscated ₹27 crore worth of material that went into the making of the drug MDMA.

The story began in January this year when Rupali Pol arrested four accused with 471 grams of MDMA crystal powder worth ₹14,05,000. During their interrogation, the investigating team got information about the main accused, Monu alias Om Gupta, the kingpin of the business who would make MDMA in Varanasi and distribute it through his networks in Nalasopara, Thane and Mumbai.

“API Pol started joining the dots and connecting hundreds of links,” said a senior officer. “She ferreted out details of the ₹16-lakh house that Monu had brought in Varanasi in January, for which he paid an advance of ₹6 lakh. After getting the basic details of the place, she went to Varanasi and began building up her network to reach the accused’s exact location. A Special Task Force (STF) team of Varanasi PI Anil Kumar Singh and his team joined hands with her.”

The easiest way to trace an accused is to track their mobile location. But in this case, while the accused’s factory was in Varanasi, his location always showed up somewhere else. Also, the location was in such a remote rural area that without informers, it was different to close in on the house.

Because of this stumbling block, the police began looking for people who lived in Varanasi and were in touch with Monu over the phone. “We spent many days searching through different links of different villages and areas and zeroed in on one specific location, that of Bhagwatipur in Pindra district,” said Pol. The officer then assumed the identity of a villager and would travel around the area and market to locate the accused, his vehicle or any suspicious activities of persons near any house.

“Things were appearing difficult when suddenly one night I noticed a vehicle that had a Nalasopara temporary identification number,” said Pol. I, along with the STF Varanasi team members, followed the vehicle, which reached a house amid a huge farm area five km away from the main village. Other houses were more than 100 metres away, and the path leading to the house was a dirt road.”

Pol and the team found that seemingly suspicious activity was going on in the house. “Two men in the house would go out to have meals and for other essential activities without talking to anyone,” she said. “We started keeping an eye on them by staying in a nearby cowshed for the whole night.”

In the evening, the men would start manufacturing MDMA and would leave the chemicals to cool on a tray on the terrace at night. “All the chemical substances needed to make the drug would be provided by Monu,” said Pol. “As neither Monu nor the other accused were residents of the area, hardly anyone knew them or could identify them. Monu would then use different vehicles to pick up the drug and distribute it to his sellers.”

Punjabrao Ugale, additional CP, crime, Thane, said that on March 16, the Thane crime branch team, along with the STF team of Varanasi, raided the place and recovered drugs and a Hyundai I-20 vehicle totally worth ₹27,87 crore. “The two arrested accused were identified as Atul Sinha, 36, and Santosh Gupta, 38,” he said. “They were produced in the court there and were brought to Mumbai immediately.” Ugale praised Pol’s determinedness in tracking down the accused in another state.

“I am still pursuing the main accused, Monu, and we will trace him soon,” said Pol, adding that she could pull off the drug bust with the support and guidance of her senior and the Varanasi STF team. “All my sleepless nights and staying away from family for so many days has paid off,” she said.

Apart from Pol and the STF team, the team which raided Monu’s house comprised PI Ravindra Patil, police constables Amol Desai and Prashant Nikhumb.