A Twitter user thought he was being funny when he tried to troll the Pune Police on Tuesday. His tweet, however, led to an exchange between him, the Pune Police, the Maharashtra Police and other Twitter users that had the cyberspace in splits.
The exchange began with the Pune Police tweeting from their official handle, @PuneCityPolice, warning people to stay away from drugs on New Year’s Eve. The tweet, for poetic effect, named cannabis, marijuana and mephedrone.
Soon after, a Twitter user, identified as Gabriel, replied saying, “Guys LSD is allowed.” To everyone’s surprise, the Pune Police replied to his tweet with “Tell us where to find it? ;-) ”
The Maharashtra Police, too, threw its hat in the ring, quoting the Pune Police’s reply and tweeting, “We could arrange the ‘pick up’ anywhere in the state!”
As the tweets started gathering attention, Gabriel tweeted, “I’m stayin’ in my bed from10 to 5 I swear (sic),” to which the Maharashtra Police responded, “Not fair, we were looking forward to an eventful #NewYearsEve :-( (sic)”
Within hours, screenshots of the exchange started doing the rounds on other social media platforms, while on Twitter, the police continued to get amused accolades. Others soon jumped into the fray. One user tweeted, “Please tell us the location if you find it, for research purposes.”
The Pune Police replied, “We could tutor you personally. Visit any police station of your preference.”
Another user said, “ Agar maine aap logo ko Adda bataya toh 10 pudiya meri? Chalega na Sir ? (If I tell you the location, I get to keep 10 pouches. Is that okay, sir?)”
The Pune Police responded, “ Aap saare rakh lena. Hum bas aapko rakh lenge. Chalega na sir? (You keep all of it. We’ll keep you. Is that okay, sir?)”
Pune Commissioner K. Venkatesham said the purpose was to emphasise on the rules while keeping the celebratory mood of New Year’s Eve intact.
“We wanted to communicate in a way that could best reach the target audience, which was the youth. At the same time we wanted to remind them about what they should not be doing,” he said.
