The Delhi police arrested a man and recovered 20,000 tubes containing addictive chemical solutions worth ₹4.15 lakh from his possession on Saturday. The accused, identified as Raj Kumar Gupta, used to supply these solution tubes (chemical drugs) to children at ₹60 per tube, said the police.
First incident
The police said that on December 7, one Deepak Kumar brought a child to Darya Ganj and stated that the child was trying to pickpocket in the bus and was addicted to sniffing the solution. When questioned, the child revealed that he got the solution from one Noor Mohammad, who allegedly sells the same at Patri near Red Fort traffic light. Mohammad was then caught red handed with 120 tubes at the instance of the child.
During interrogation, Mohammad allegedly told the police that there was a gang operating who buys the solutions from an unknown shop. He revealed that some of the gang members were even juveniles, who in turn sold the solutions across several other places in the city.
Juvenile sellers
Based on this information, the police apprehended four juveniles with 20 solution tubes each and three other men — Chandan Kumar, Jagdish and Sameer — were also caught with 20 tubes each. Upon further investigation, it was found that all of them bought the solutions from a shop, Vinayak Motors, in Mukherjee Marg, near Old Delhi Railway Station.
Senior police officers were notified on this information and a team was formed. A raid was then conducted at Mukherjee Marg and 19,440 tubes of solution were seized and one Raj Kumar Gupta was apprehended.
During interrogation, Gupta disclosed that he owns a shop at Old Delhi Railway Station that has been running for the last 10 years. He allegedly started selling the tubes to children to increase his income. In the raid, a total of 19,440 tubes were seized from the shop and the warehouse.
Viral video
The police said that further investigation was in progress in the case. Efforts are also on to uncover other sellers, if any.
The incident comes after a video went viral on social media a few months ago, in which a teenager talked about his drug addiction. The video was part of a documentary that was based on the roadside drug menace in Delhi.
