Ganja plants grown on Ujjani hillock seized in RT Nagar

Chandrappa

Budensab

Marappa

Twenty-five kilos of ganja plants grown on the Ujjani hillock near Doddaballapur have been seized in the city. RT Nagar police arrested a gang of three suspected ganja peddlers after tracking them for 15 days.

Police had learnt about the gang’s activities after arresting a suspected drug consumer named Karthik, 22, in Sultanpalya earlier this month.

Karthik reportedly told the police about the main ganja supplier, one Budensab, 59, of Hindupur.

A team led by Reena Suvarna, Assistant Commissioner of Police (JC Nagar), subsequently arrested Budensab and two of his associates Chandrappa, 40, of Kolar, and Marappa, 56, of Chikkaballapur. Chandrappa and Marappa are small-time farmers.

Budensab used to smuggle dried ganja from Visakhapatnam and supply it to Chandrappa and Marappa. Police have seized five kilos of dried ganja.

The gang would also harvest ganja plants grown in and around Ujjani, Kolar and Chikkaballapur.

It would usually do a recce during the day and pluck the plants at night. The plants would be cut into pieces, dried and sold to select consumers in Bengaluru, said a police officer.

Last week, Chandrappa and Marappa had brought the ganja plants and left it to dry at Onion Ground in RT Nagar when the police seized the contraband.