Under normal circumstances, heaps of marijuana stashed up inside tents with red carpets rolled for guests, music blaring in the background, and police vans in the vicinity, give the impression of a celebrity rave party being raided by cops.
A similar stage was set in the state of Andhra Pradesh in southern India, but with an interesting plot twist.
The rave party-like arrangement was made for senior cops to arrive and set on fire the huge cache of around 200,000 kg of ganja worth about $26 million, which had been confiscated from peddlers since October 2020.
Authorities had deployed several drone cameras to shoot, what it called, a “historic occasion in the annals of Andhra Pradesh Police”.
In a video which has since gone viral, Gautam Sawang, chief of Andhra Pradesh Police, walked the red carpet with grandeur and lit a fire that consumed the entire stash.
Sawang said the outlawed Maoists encourage marijuana cultivation in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha and supply the contraband to other parts of the country.
The state police have launched an Operation named ‘Parivartan (Change)’ to eliminate cannabis and its illegal transportation along the Andhra-Odisha border.
Police chief Sawang said that the team had arrested over 1,500 people involved in the cannabis business since October 2020.