HETAUDA: Makawanpur Police have arrested a pickup van driver and his assistant and confiscated 212 kilograms of marijuana from Hetauda Sub-Metropolitan City-3 of the district on Wednesday.

Police have identified the arrestees as driver Ramjas Yadav (26) and assistant Ujjwal Gurmachhane Magar (19), both residents of Bardibas Municipality in Mahotari district.

A joint team of police -- deployed under the leadership of Police Inspector Pawan Kumar Jha from District Police Office (DPO), Makawanpur and Provincial Police Office of Province 3 -- stopped the pickup (Na 3 Cha 3769) en route from Manahari to Hetauda during a regular screening and arrested the duo after finding the marijuana hidden under the tarpaulin in the vehicle, according to Superintendent of Police (SP) Mukesh Kumar Singh at Makawanpur DPO.

The marijuana was found packaged in 30 packets, informed SP Singh. Police have made the arrestees public at a press meet in Makawanpur DPO on Thursday.

According to law, the duo if proven guilty could face a jail sentence of two to 10 years or could be slapped Rs 15,000 to Rs 100,000 in fine, or both, police said.

Similarly, one person was arrested on the charge of possessing controlled pharmaceutical drugs from the district.

According to police, Lakshya Bahadur Rai (37) of Rapti Municipality-4 of Chitwan was arrested in possession of 127 tablets of Nitrovet, 10 ampoules of Dizilab, 10 ampules of Beunophirn, and 10 ampoules of Phenergan while being frisked. Rai was travelling in a passenger bus (Na 7 Kha 9165) en route from Birjung to Hetauda at the time of arrest.

Rai will be charged according to the law, police informed.