Bengaluru Cops to hold students' meet on drugs

Bengaluru: In the light of regular incidents of drug seizures and peddlers being caught in the city, the police department is planning to visit educational institutions to interact with the students, an official said on Saturday.

"Once the colleges start, there will be a lot of educational programmes against drugs," a police official from the Central Crime Branch (CCB) said.

Police teams led by Sandeep Patil, Joint Commissioner, Crime, will interact with the students to counsel and enlighten them to stay away from drugs. Police are also looking at the possibility of including curriculum on drugs to motivate students to stay away from the banned substances.

"If it is possible, curriculum could also be added. We will also tie up with NGOs and others," he said. Already anti-drug committees exist in most of the city colleges.

In Belagavi, Excise Minister H. Nagesh said excise and police departments will jointly conduct raids to bust drug peddling in Karnataka.

Nagesh said the government wants to protect innocent people falling prey to drugs and highlighted that night raids will also be carried out.

Following the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) busting a drug racket which had many musicians and film personalities as customers, the Excise Minister hinted that maybe only the tip of the drug racket iceberg has been exposed.

Recently, NCB busted a drug racket involving former television actress D. Anikha and two of her accomplices, R. Ravindran and M. Anoop.

NCB seized a large haul of drugs from the accused consisting of 145 ecstasy or MDMA pills and Rs 2.2 lakh cash from Royal Suites Hotel Apartment in Kalyan Nagar.

Later, 96 MDMA pills, 180 LSD blots were also seized from Nikoo Homes and 180 more LDS blots from Anikha's home in Doddagubbi.

The busted drug racket was suspected of supplying recreational and party drugs to Sandalwood actors, children of VIPs, students and others.

According to officials, Anikha used to source the drugs from abroad through an international courier, making bitcoin payments.

Bengaluru Police Commissioner Kamal Panth said the city police will certainly examine any request it receives from other agencies in probing the TV actress case.

"They are doing their investigation, whenever they approach we will certainly examine the request. But right now we are focusing on our own case," Panth said about the arrest of three drug peddlers and seizure of 204 kg cannabis on Thursday.

Procuring drugs from East Godavari district in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, the arrested trio was supplying cannabis in Bengaluru, Ramnagar, Mysuru, Chikkaballapura and other places.

They were procuring the drugs from Andhra Pradesh in lorries and tankers till the outer district from where they shifted the drugs in smaller quantities of 25-30 kg into cars for further supply.

Over the months, police in this tech city have been regularly busting drug rackets, leading to the arrest of locals as well as foreigners.

In the first six months of 2020 within the city, police arrested 781 Indians and 14 foreigners for their role in drugs cases. From January to June, police seized 312 kg of marijuana, 17 kg of hashish, 91 papers of LSD and 550 tablets belonging to the Yaba, Restyl, Anxit and Nitrosun category of drugs.

Marijuana or ganja has emerged as the most peddled and seized drug in Karnataka in the first six months. As many as 510 ganja cases were registered. Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai said there is a zero tolerance policy in the fight against drugs. Police also roped in celebrities such as Milana Nagaraj, Darling Krishna and former cricketer Anil Kumble to send across a social message to give up drugs.