Thirty-four kg of ganja smuggled into Bengaluru from Odisha and Andhra Pradesh was seized on Monday and four suspected drug peddlers arrested.
Sanjaynagar police said they received a tip that ganja was being sold near a temple in Mohanraj Layout. When they rushed to the spot, they found a man, identified as Shabeer Khan, 34, carrying a bag. They picked him up for questioning and searched the bag which yielded ganja. Based on the information provided by Khan, police arrested two of his associates — Visakhapatnam natives Bheemanna and S Nanna Rao — near a mall in Kempapura. In all, police seized 30 kg of ganja worth Rs 9 lakh from the three men.
Police said Khan, a resident of New Layout in Bhoopasandra, was an auto-rickshaw driver who started peddling ganja after the lockdown wiped out his earnings. He bought the contraband from Bheemanna and Rao at a lower price and sold it to consumers in the city at a profit. Rao and Bheemanna sourced ganja from Odisha and sold it to sub-peddlers and consumers. Drug peddling was their only source of income, according to the police.
In another case, Soladevanahalli police arrested Surendra alias Surya, 21, a BSc student from Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh, and seized 4 kg of ganja from him. Surya was arrested from Railway Parallel Road in Chikkabanavara on the basis of a tip-off given by his customer, one Jagannadam Vikash Mishra. Police said Surya sourced ganja from Anantapur and sold it to fellow students in Bengaluru.