Hotel musician among three held for peddling drugs

Vicky M

Karthik

Prem Kumar

Srirampura police Tuesday arrested three drug sellers, including a musician and a delivery boy, and seized 40 kilograms of ganja, an autorickshaw and two bikes.

The arrested were Srirampura resident Karthik alias Kabali (31), Koramangala resident Viki M (30) and Prem Kumar (21) from Kudlu. Two others associated with the gang are at large and police are making efforts to nab them.

Police said they had been tipped off about the three-member gang was carrying drugs from Yeshwantpur on two bikes and an autorickshaw and were going to Ayyappa Swamy temple in Srirampura. They caught the trio around 5 pm Tuesday.

Karthik works in a welding shop and an old offender arrested for drug peddling by Rajajinagar police in 2019. Viki plays music in a Koramangala hotel, while Prem is a delivery boy with an e-commerce firm. Both are arrested for the first time.

An investigating officer said Viki and Prem bought ganja from Karthik as consumers, but they later became his associates. After getting out of prison on bail, Karthik continued the drug trade.

He travelled to Odisha to procure drugs from a peddler. He brought ganja packets by train and the trio divided the consignment among themselves and sold it to sub-peddlers and consumers in Srirampura, Rajajinagar, Subramanyanagar, Seshadripuram and Basaveshwaranagar areas, police said.