In a major crackdown on campus drug rackets, the task force of EAGLE Telangana on Tuesday busted an interstate network supplying narcotics to students at Mahindra University in Hyderabad. The task force arrested four people, including two students of the university, and seized 1.15 kg of ganja and 47 grams of OG weed. The task force identified at least 50 students who were consuming drugs after going through their bank transactions. The university authorities have been blamed for not conducting regular checks in the hostels, allowing students to brazenly procure drugs through courier parcels.
A few days ago, the EAGLE task force dismantled a highly sophisticated drug trafficking network run by a hotel entrepreneur who owned a restaurant, Malnadu Kitchen. During the investigation, sleuths found that the drug parcels were booked through Rajesh Enterprises, a franchise of Sree Maruti Couriers. After going through the lists of parcels sent by the courier company to Hyderabad, they found the Indian phone number of a Nigerian called Nick. His name had surfaced even during the Malnadu Kitchen case, as he had sent drug parcels to the restaurant owner. The sleuths then found out from the delivery boys that the parcels were delivered to a Mahindra University student, Dinesh, twice. However, the payments were made to Nick by another student of the university, named Bhaskar. They had received 4 MDMA pills, which they consumed with their friends at a pub.
The EAGLE team then gathered information from campus security guards and students and pinpointed a student who had earlier been staying at the hostel but then shifted outside the campus and was selling drugs. They finally identified two more students and traced their houses, contacts, and UPI and PhonePe transactions and alerted the university authorities. They conducted a raid at a premises in Jeedimetla and arrested the four persons. Nevelle Tongbram, a 21-year-old student, was identified as the main handler who procured the OG Weed from Delhi contacts through courier and stored it at his flat in Jeedimetla. Ambato Ganesh, a 24-year-old, was the one who peddled the drugs to students and other buyers after repackaging the drugs in smaller packets. Boosa Shiva Kumar, a 26-year-old employee, travelled to Karnataka to source bulk consignments of ganja and supplied them to Ganesh. Mohd Ashar Jawed Khan, a 21-year-old student of Mahindra University, was the principal campus-level supplier of drugs to students along with Nevelle. According to sleuths, “In Mahindra University, the accused specifically targeted students. Nevelle and Ashar maintained a ready list of student consumers and coordinated demand so that fresh supplies could be dispatched from Delhi and Gurugram.”
The statement from the police also blamed the university authorities, saying there was no routine checking in the hostels, pointing out that drugs were being delivered to hostels through courier companies. The EAGLE also pointed out that in the past year, successful raids were carried out at noted educational institutions, including Symbiosis College, Osmania General Hospital, Osmania University, IIIT Basara, ICFAI, Guru Nanak Engineering College, and so on.