From Kathmandu temple to Bihar border: How Rajasthan police lured wanted drug trafficker out of Nepal

IG Kumar said the arrest was part of the state’s continuing crackdown on drug smuggling. With Sohanlal’s arrest, the ANTF has now arrested 103 wanted persons, he said. Kumar added that the personnel involved in the operation would be honoured at the ANTF headquarters.

For a drug trafficker who had spent months hiding in Nepal, a meeting with prospective buyers promising a lucrative deal proved to be his undoing. On Saturday, October 10, Rajasthan Police said its Anti-Narcotics Task Force (ANTF) had arrested Sohanlal, a 32-year-old alleged drug trafficker wanted for six years, at the Raxaul border in Bihar. The team posed as Punjab-based buyers and lured him out of Nepal, where he had been hiding for months.

ANTF Inspector General Vikas Kumar said Sohanlal, who carried a Rs 75,000 reward, was among Rajasthan’s top 25 narco-criminals. His arrest marked the ANTF’s first arrest of an internationally absconding wanted person.

Under the operation, code-named Vishanhans, ANTF personnel approached Sohanlal’s associates while posing as major drug buyers from Punjab and offered to strike a deal involving a large consignment. His associates told the undercover cops that a deal of that scale could be negotiated only with Sohanlal himself, who was based in Nepal. They subsequently arranged a meeting with him outside Kathmandu’s Pashupatinath temple.

The ANTF team travelled to Kathmandu and waited at a hotel near the location provided by the associates. However, when Sohanlal failed to turn up, further intelligence revealed that he regularly visited the temple, “believing that his religious visits would help him evade arrest,” the ANTF said.

The team then deployed personnel in disguise near the temple. One officer posed as a garland seller, another as a tilak applicator, while others blended in with devotees entering the premises. During surveillance, they spotted a man whose appearance matched that of the wanted accused.

Posing as buyers, the officers eventually gained his confidence and convinced him to agree to a deal. They told him their chief was travelling from Punjab with a large amount of cash to purchase the drugs. Citing security concerns over carrying such a sum into Nepal, they persuaded Sohanlal to travel to the Raxaul border in Bihar to collect an advance payment. As soon as he crossed into Indian territory with his team, ANTF personnel apprehended him.

According to the ANTF, Sohanlal had fled to Nepal in October 2025 to evade arrest in a case registered under the NDPS Act at Chittalwana police station in Rajasthan’s Jalore district in 2020. Police said he was preparing to leave Nepal for Bhutan on October 10, the day he was arrested.

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Sohanlal initially entered the illegal liquor trade in 2016 but later shifted to smuggling doda chura (poppy husk) and opium, which he found more lucrative. He initially operated alongside other smugglers in Barmer before setting up an independent network after a falling-out over profit-sharing.

His alleged supply network extended across Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan’s Mewar region, including Chittorgarh, Udaipur and Bhilwara. Through associates, he allegedly supplied consignments in Marwar and Punjab.

After the NDPS case was registered against him in 2020, Sohanlal went underground. Police said he moved between several states, including Maharashtra, Gujarat, Goa, Delhi, Chandigarh and Andhra Pradesh, and avoided using a mobile phone. He also spent time in Mumbai, where his father runs a steel business.

After fleeing to Nepal in October 2025, he continued to operate his network through associates in India.

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IG Kumar said the arrest was part of the state’s continuing crackdown on drug smuggling. With Sohanlal’s arrest, the ANTF has now arrested 103 wanted persons, he said. Kumar added that the personnel involved in the operation would be honoured at the ANTF headquarters.

© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd

Hamza Khan is a seasoned Correspondent for The Indian Express, specifically reporting from the diverse and politically dynamic state of Rajasthan. Based in Jaipur, he provides high-authority coverage on the state's governance, legal landscape, and social issues, directly supporting the "Journalism of Courage" ethos of the publication. Expertise Politics & Governance: Comprehensive tracking of the Rajasthan Legislative Assembly, including policy changes (e.g., the Right to Health Bill and Anti-Mob Lynching Bills), bypoll dynamics, and the shifting power structures between the BJP and Congress. ... Read More

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