Bhubaneswar, Jan. 20: A special investigation team of Jharkhand police today arrested the employee of a courier company based at Phulnakhara on the outskirts of the city for smuggling cannabis.

Santosh Biswal, 35, was arrested from his home in Chakeisiani by the visiting police team with the help of the Mancheswar police and was produced before a local court in the afternoon before being taken on transit remand.

The Jharkhand cops said they found out about courier parcels containing cannabis (ganja) being transported to Delhi through the depot of the company in Jamshedpur. They conducted a raid on the depot on January 14.

“We found a big packet containing 46 kilograms of cannabis being transported in a container vehicle of the company. The contraband had been pressed into the shape of small bricks and packed in a bag. The sender’s address was in the name of a company selling handloom goods in Bhubaneswar, while the receiver’s address was in the name of Lakhan Singh at Kirari in New Delhi,” said the officer in charge of the raiding team.

He said Biswal worked for a company called Gati-Kintetsu Express Private Limited. He had received the parcel in Bhubaneswar and dispatched it to Delhi. So, they detained him and tried to locate the sender. The sender’s address was found to be false.

“We asked him the real address of the sender, but he went on giving us the fake one. We suspected that he might be involved in sending the packet and was trying to mislead us. We then arrested him. We will ask him to get more information about others involved in this racket,” said the officer.

Inspector in charge of Mancheswar police station Bharat Sahoo said the youth admitted he had received the parcel and dispatched it to the address mentioned.

“We just helped the Jharkhand police, who will take him on remand and probe for more information,” said Sahoo.

The accused has pleaded innocence. He also said that as the courier company at its Phulnakhara branch office had no facilities for opening and checking packets, he received the packets and dispatched them. “I had seen the man, whom I knew as Ashok, coming to our office several times in the past with packets. I never doubted him. I had his voter identity card but the address on it is fake,” said Biswal. He said he would be able to recognise the main accused if saw him.

The Jharkhand cops said Biswal could have felt the cannabis-brick in his hands if he had checked the packets properly from outside. The officials said another team has gone to conduct raids at the receiver’s address in Delhi.

“The Delhi address was found to be genuine and we hope our other team will be successful in arresting some accused from there,” said the police.