The district police have arrested five medical students on charges of cultivating and peddling ganja in two separate cases.
Dry and wet ganja worth Rs 42,000 were seized from the arrested.
The arrested are: Vighnaraj (28), a native of Jakkappanagar in Krishnagiri of Tamil Nadu and a resident of Shivaganga layout, Purle; Vinod Kumar (27), a native of Idukki district in Kerala and Pandidorai (27) of Dharmapuri in Tamil Nadu, both residents of Purle; Abdul Khayam, a native of Vijayapura and Arpita (24), a native of Kottur in Vijayanagar district.
All the five are final-year MBBS students of a private medical college in the city, according to Superintendent of Police G K Mithun Kumar.
The SP said a team led by Rural station inspector Abhay Prakash Somnal raided a house at old Gurupura after they found suspicious
activities there and arrested Arpita and Abdul Khayam on Friday.
The team seized dry ganja worth Rs 20,000 from them.
The police team then arrested the remaining three from the Shivaganga Layout house after Arpita and Khayam revealed their names during the interrogation.
‘Artifical sunlight’
According to the SP, Vighnaraj was growing ganja in a room of his house by creating artificial sunlight using special bulbs. He had collected details on ganja cultivation via the internet and had bought seeds online. The other two suspects, Vinod and Pandidorai, used to buy ganja from him.
The team seized dry ganja worth Rs 5,800, 1.53 kg wet ganja worth Rs 30,000, 10 gram of charas, ganja seeds, cannabis oil, ganja powder,
electronic weighing machine, exhaust fan, six table fans, rolling papers, two stabilisers, LED lights and Rs 19,000 in cash.
A case has been registered against them under Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985, Mithun Kumar said.