Cops step up vigil in city to curb ganja menace

Visakhapatnam: In a move to curb ganja menace, the city police are contemplating to banish those from the city who are repeatedly involved in ganja transportation and sale.

To implement it effectively in Visakhapatnam, city Commissioner of Police Ch Srikanth has given instructions to the police teams to carry out frequent raids across the city, more so at vulnerable points.

With a couple of rowdy sheeters being nabbed by the City Task Force (CTF) recently while transporting ganja, the attention is now on rowdy sheeters as well.

According to the police, the involvement of rowdy sheeters in ganja transportation is quite minimal. Normally, a few of them bring a kilo or two of ganja from the Agency areas for their personal use. As some of them are directly involved in the cannabis transportation and the transaction becoming a source of income for them, the police now pay special attention to them.

To place a check on this, Visakhapatnam police are planning to ban those involved frequently in cannabis sale from the city and book them under the Preventive Detention Act. This, the police opine, would prevent the offenders from involving in such crime in future.

Recently, based on reliable information, the CTF conducted a vehicle check at Pendurthi junction and seized 25-kg of ganja, two country pistols, a knife and six cell phones from them. Among the accused, one of them was identified as Dhoni Satish, a rowdy-sheeter from One Town area, a key member of the Dandupalya gang. There are several murder, assault and intimidation cases against Satish in One Town, Two Town and police station jurisdiction.

Earlier, he was convicted in a case and sent to jail. Also, cases were booked against him in various police stations as he threatened and demanded money from vehicle owners and took away seven two-wheelers and an auto-rickshaw from the owners by force.

Another rowdy sheeter P Gowri Sai Teja, Satish's friend, was caught in the same ganja case. Earlier, while they were in jail, they made friends with those who were arrested in a ganja case. Inspired by the new acquaintance, the rowdy sheeters too got into the sale of cannabis.

Special teams were formed to curb ganja menace in the city. "Youngsters should stay away from indulging in substance abuse. Parents need to monitor their child's behaviour from close quarters. The police are ready to provide all the support to the students in case they need any counselling in this regard. More focus will be laid on rowdy sheeters and they will be taken to task if they are seen involved in cannabis transportation," said A Trinad Rao, Assistant Commissioner of Police (CTF).