A kingpin of a drug syndicate used a secret basement at his residence in Uttar Pradesh's Meerut to flee the police during a raid on Friday.
Taslim, who has more than 70 cases registered against him, built the basement to store the drug consignments.
NDTV visited the site, which was built about 15 feet below the ground, and found out that Taslim kept dozens of chairs and carpets used for wedding decoration in the basement.
He reportedly used them to cover the drug consignments.
His son and a close aide were arrested with drugs a day before the police raided his residence.
The arrests came after Meerut Police received a tip-off that Taslim was planning to transport a large consignment of drugs.
The police then set up a cordon and traced Taslim's son, Shahbaz, and his associate, Salman. Over 500 grams of 'charas' (cannabis) were also recovered from their possession.
However, when the police raided Taslim's residence a day later, he reportedly used a narrow exit in his basement and fled.
He also allegedly used children for transporting his consignment. He was earlier arrested a few times but was out on bail. Multiple properties linked to him had also been seized under the Gangster Act.
The police in Uttar Pradesh have stepped up operations to arrest drug traffickers.
This month, a joint team of the Anti-Narcotics Task Force (ANTF) Meerut and Daurala police station seized 72.9 kg of ganja and arrested four persons. The cannabis was concealed inside 12 inverter bodies.
The accused were identified as Arvind, alias Bhura, Akdas, Moharram and Mohammad Sadiq. During interrogation, they revealed that Arvind was running the network and procured ganja from Jaipur and Odisha, while the other three transported the consignments by bus.
On December 6, five people allegedly linked with an interstate narcotics syndicate were arrested in Meerut, and 125 kg of ganja were recovered from them.
(With inputs from Sanuj Sharma)
