Belagavi Police have arrested a gang of men, including an engineering college student, on the charge of selling narcotic substances to school and college students.
Police Commissioner B.S. Lokesh Kumar told presspersons here on Wednesday that they had busted a drug trade racket by arresting eight drug peddlers in two cases. They were arrested on the charge of selling contraband substances to school and college students.
The police have recovered 2.19 kilograms of ganja worth ₹ 21,900 and 126 chits of Panni (a narcotic drug) worth ₹ 25,000 along with ₹ 3,100 in cash, four mobile phones and three motorbikes. Two cases have been registered against them in police stations in Mala Maruti and Market Area in Belagavi. Mr. Kumar said that based on credible information, a police team kept tab on the accused and arrested them.
The names of five of the accused were given as Akhil Ahmed Kutubuddin Munavalli, a truck driver from Alnavar, Aatif Nazeer Ahmed Chachadi of Mahantesh Nagar and Salman Pattekhan of Veerabhadra Nagar in Belagavi, Suraj Kallapap Agasar, an engineer in Kakati village, and Amir Abdul Latif Baig from Jammu and Kashmir, who is studying in a local engineering college.
According to the Police Commissioner, Munavalli had been smuggling marijuana from Indore in Madhya Pradesh and Shiradi in Maharashtra. He supplied it to Chachadi and Pattekhan in the city. Agasar and Baig became acquainted with the other accused and began making and selling small packets of the contraband to students of some of the prominent schools and college in the city.
“We had been receiving complaints that there was a steady supply and trade of drugs in the city, turning college students into drug abusers and even peddlers. However, from a few sources we got credible information about the source of drugs and their trade route. When we got a clue of it, we arrested them,” Mr. Kumar said.
