A guest lecturer took to peddling drugs after he wasn’t paid due to the pandemic, police said.
Kiran, 22, the son of a farmer, was teaching at a private ITI in Krishnapur, Telangana. The pandemic put a stop to his hopes of a regular income as the college didn’t pay him citing the lockdown. That is when somebody told him about the “lucrative” business of drug peddling. He decided to take the plunge.
He bought ganja from the nearby town of Zaheerabad and sold it to peddlers and consumers on highways in Bidar. He later teamed up with a friend named Mahipal, 22, also from his hometown. Mahipal has a college degree but no job. His parents are also dependent on agriculture. He also decided to peddle drugs to make a living.
With a view to expand their operations, the duo decided to smuggle ganja into Bengaluru and borrowed a car from a friend for the purpose. In the city, hey sold the contraband to sub-peddlers, including one Asghar Khan, a resident of Adigara Kallahalli near Anekal. Khan, a class 9 dropout, had been working as a lift operator at a private firm and was allegedly addicted to drugs. He also allegedly started peddling ganja as his salary wasn’t enough to support his family. Police said he had purchased 12 kg of ganja from the duo in Bidar two months ago and sold it to consumers in Bengaluru.
JP Nagar police stumbled upon the gang after detaining a 25-year-old man who was smoking at the& M Vishveshwaraiah ground on the night of September 26. The smoker, one Vishwanath, told the police he had been waiting for Khan to buy ganja from him.
Police sub-inspector Yogesh Khanagoud took Khan’s photo and other details from Vishwanath. A police team lay in waiting for Khan and caught him later that night. Police said they seized 649 grams of ganja from him. Khan later told the police he procured the contraband from Kiran and Mahipal. Based on his information, police caught the duo with 126 kg of ganja in a car on Sunday. The seized ganja is worth more than Rs 70 lakh, police said.
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