Telangana police officials, along with the Prohibition and Excise Department, said that they will be increasing vigilance and start running checks on general stores for sale of ganja-laced chocolates.
There has been in a spike in distribution of ganja-laced chocolates in the city over the past few months. Officials from the Hyderabad City police said that they will chalk out a measure to curb the smuggling and sale.
“The target consumers seem to be mostly students in the city. We have also received some complaints from netizens on this issue and efforts are in place to conduct checks. Meanwhile, the citizen tip line numbers for Hyderabad-Narcotics Enforcement Wing - 040-27852080 and 8712661601 - are available for anyone to call and provide details. Their information will be kept confidential,” said an official from the South Zone of Hyderabad.
“Respected sir/madam, my humble request: please conduct checks at all kirana shops just as a precaution regarding whether anybody is selling ganja chocolates. This is for the safety of small school going children in Chaderghat police station limits area,” read one of the posts on X (formerly Twitter).
Excise officials have made three busts in January. Assistant Commissioner of Excise (Rangareddy), Chandraiah said that links have been established to Odisha. “On January 23, Excise officials seized 2.7 kilograms of ganja chocolates from C. Mukesh (20) and Gupta Mannu (27) from Hafeezpet, Serilingampally for selling them online via Indiamart. Other links have led us to Unnao in Uttar Pradesh,” said the official.
On January 27, 176 packets of ganja chocolates, each weighing 200 grams, were seized from a general store in Ramanthapur, Uppal. A total of 35.2 kilograms of ganja chocolates were seized from Phiroj Jena alias Ravi, a resident of IDA Uppal and a native of Balasore District in Odisha. “Again, on January 29, Somyaranjan Mallick of Talapada, Odisha was caught in possession of 18 packets of the narcotic-laced chocolates in Kokapet, Shamshabad. We seized a total of 40 chocolates weighing 3.6 kilograms from him,” added the official.
In similar cases across Telangana, on February 1, the Sangareddy police arrested Prem Kumar (35) for selling ganja and ganja chocolates to industrial workers at Malkapur village. “Kumar was earlier booked in two cases of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS) in Patancheru and in Narsapur. We have now seized 1.5 kilograms of contraband from him,” said the police.
Addressing the media, Superintendent of Sangareddy Police, Chennuri Rupesh said that several students and youngsters were falling prey to ganja peddlers and called upon the youth to share information with the police if they came across ganja peddlers. Their identity would be kept confidential
In Siddipet too, one Rakesh Kumar was found selling the same drug-laced chocolates to daily wage labourers. Officials seized 30 packets of ganja-laced chocolates from him.
