2 students of NIT-W held for drug peddling

Hanamkonda: The menace of psychedelic drugs, which created hubbub in the state capital recently, is spreading its tentacles into Warangal the second biggest city in Telangana after Hyderabad.

In a significant development, two drug peddlers who happened to be engineering students of the National Institute of Technology Warangal (NIT-W) were caught by a team of sleuths of excise and prohibition state task force and Warangal division.

They were caught red-handed while trying to deliver blots of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) at a petrol bunk near the NIT-W on Wednesday. The excise team seized the five LSD blots and apprehended them. Seizing LSD and arresting drug peddlers in Warangal is the first instance the city witnessed. Though everyone is worried about the drug racket getting rooted in the state capital its spread in a place like Warangal has become even more worrisome.

The accused are identified as Y Ramesh and G Dwijj of Hyderabad. It is learnt that the leads obtained during the ongoing investigation in Hyderabad drug racket have led to their arrest.

They used to order the material on online through dark websites. After procuring the substance at the residence of Dwijj in Dilsukhnagar in Hyderabad through India Post. Later, they would sell the drug to their customers in different cities, including Warangal.

The cost of each blot of LSD is said to be around Rs 2,500. It leaves those consumed under a state of hallucination for about 8 to 10 hours. LSD is a high-end hallucinogen categorised as schedule-I drug, excise and prohibition Warangal division deputy commissioner R Suresh told The Hans India.

“Whether accused have sold the substance inside the NIT campus is yet to be ascertained. Our teams on the field carrying out investigation based on the leads. During investigation, the accused have revealed that they have sold it to five persons and the details of those persons are yet to be ascertained,” Suresh said.

The students belong to 2012 batch and staying at 1K hostel for appearing for final year backlogs. The excise team has also raided the hostel room and seized two cell phones and a laptop from the arrested students and sent them for forensic analysis.

Reacting on the incident, Jana Vignana Vedika district president Dr D Prabhakara Chary said LSD has many attractive names such as acid, yellow sunshine, purple heart, superman and many colourful names.

Nonetheless, it is a dangerous psychoactive drug. The NIT-W administration must take a serious note of the involvement of its students in the drug racket which is a very distressing development, he added.