Jaipur, Oct 10 (IANS) The Anti-Narcotics Task Force (ANTF) of Rajasthan Police has arrested wanted drug smuggler Sohanlal, alias Sonu, carrying a bounty of Rs 75,000, at the Raxaul border in Bihar along the India-Nepal border, ending his six-year run from the law.
The arrest was made under ‘Operation Vishnahas’ after the accused, who had been absconding since 2020 in a case registered under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, was traced to Kathmandu, where he had allegedly been operating his drug-smuggling network through associates in Rajasthan.
ANTF Inspector General of Police Vikas Kumar said the operation was conducted under the guidance of Rajasthan DGP Rajiv Kumar Sharma and Additional DGP Dinesh MN. With Sohanlal’s arrest, the task force has apprehended 103 wanted criminals carrying rewards, including 102 previously arrested from locations across 12 states. This was the ANTF’s first operation to apprehend a wanted criminal carrying a bounty from a foreign location, according to the police.
Officials said Sohanlal, 32, a resident of Balotra district, began his criminal activities by smuggling illicit liquor in 2016 before allegedly shifting to opium and poppy husk. He reportedly procured narcotics from Neemuch in Madhya Pradesh and Chittorgarh, Udaipur and Bhilwara in Rajasthan, supplying consignments to smugglers operating in the Marwar and Punjab regions.
After being named in an NDPS case registered in Jalore district in 2020, he allegedly moved between cities including Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Goa, Delhi and Chandigarh to evade arrest. He reportedly fled to Nepal in October 2025 and continued managing his network from Kathmandu.
According to the ANTF, officers posed as major drug buyers from Punjab to persuade his associates to arrange a meeting. The team then travelled to Kathmandu and discreetly monitored the area around Pashupatinath Temple, where Sohanlal reportedly visited regularly. Officers adopted undercover roles, including posing as a garland seller and a tilak vendor, to identify him without raising suspicion.
The police allegedly persuaded him to travel to Raxaul for a purported business deal and arrested him after he crossed into Indian territory.
Investigators said Sohanlal was planning to flee Nepal for Bhutan on October 10 but was apprehended before he could execute the plan. He has been taken into custody for further legal proceedings. The ANTF said officers involved in the operation would be felicitated at its headquarters.
–IANS
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