The South division police on Tuesday arrested a driver, a BA graduate and a guest lecturer of an Industrial Training Institute in Telangana for allegedly being a part of an inter-State drug racket. “The trio had lost their jobs and other steady sources of income during the pandemic. They decided to sell drugs to make a quick buck,” said a senior police officer.
The police recovered 126 kg of ganja worth ₹76.2 lakh from Mahipal P., 22, and Kiran G., 22. from Telangana, and Zahir Khan, 24, from Anekal.
The racket came to light when the J.P. Nagar police, acting on a tip off, nabbed Zahir while he was selling ganja to his clients on the road. They recovered 650 gm of ganja, ₹1,500 cash and a mobile phone from him. He allegedly told the police that he was working as a driver for a private firm in Anekal but had developed an addiction to drugs.
Unable to support his family with his meagre salary, which had already taken a hit on account of the COVID-19 pandemic, he allegedly started buying ganja in bulk from Kiran and Mahipal. “He claimed to have purchased 12 kg of ganja a month-and-a-half ago from the duo and selling it to his clients in Bengaluru,” said the police.
The police used Zahir to reach out to the duo and placed an order for another shipment. As per the plan, Kiran and Mahipal agreed to transport some marijuana to Bidar, where a police team was waiting for them.
Kiran told the police that he was a guest lecturer in the ITI college in Krishnapura in Telangana but lost the job during the lockdown. “He started peddling drugs and sold them to dealers in Bengaluru where there is a a huge demand,” said the police.
Mahipal is a BA graduate from Zahirabad in Telangana, who, until the lockdown, eked out a living doing odd jobs.
The police have taken the trio into custody for a detailed investigation to ascertain the possible involvement of others.
Apartment notice creates stir
A notice issued by the management committee of an apartment complex in Kadugodi seeking information on all ‘bachelors and spinsters’ staying on rent caused a stir in the city. In light of the mandate to curb drugs in the city, police stations are reaching out to all communities seeking these details, the notice reads.
This was condemned as being biased against singles, and amounting to profiling.
DCP (Whitefield) Devraju denied that the police had sought any such details from residential communities. “This internal note from an apartment community is only an instance of a management committee member going overboard. The police cannot be held responsible for the same,” he said.
It later emerged that, at a recent outreach meeting in the neighbourhood, the local police had asked community members to be vigilant and alert them if flats were being rented out exclusively for the purpose of parties where drugs are consumed. “This was made in light of the recent revelation that some flats were taken on rent exclusively for parties where drug abuse was high,” said a senior police officer.
