Tambaram cops raid flats, hostels; seize ganja candy

CHENNAI: In a major operation, 300 police personnel from Tambaram city police led by Deputy Commissioner Pavan Kumar Reddy conducted searches in hostels and apartments in Potheri and surrounding areas on Saturday night after receiving a tip-off that university students and IT professionals residing in these apartments possessed narcotic substances.

During the operation, 5,250 ganja chocolates and several hundred sachets of banned oral tobacco products were seized, and two persons who allegedly sold the narcotic substances to students and techies have been detained for questioning, police sources said.

Apart from searches at apartments, officials also conducted searches at shops and restaurants in Maraimalai Nagar and Guduvanchery police limits.

According to police sources, the searches were followed by a tip-off that students and techies residing in these neighbourhoods have been procuring narcotic substances through courier firms by providing wrong addresses.

In August last year, the Tambaram city police had conducted a similar special operation at an apartment complex in Potheri after which narcotic substances were seized. They arrested 11 students of a private university, who were later let off on bail by a magistrate.

Apart from the students, 10 others, including a history-sheeter, who peddled ganja to students and an Uttar Pradesh native who sold ganja chocolates from the eatery he ran near the apartment complex, were arrested.

A 19-year-old student from Andhra Pradesh, who was detained by the police during the drug raid, died by suicide.

Similar searches were conducted in Tiruchy, Coimbatore, Salem, and Madurai last year, in which hostels and apartment complexes were searched for narcotic substances, and 19 persons were arrested.

According to officials, such special operations near hostels and colleges are being conducted by the police on the basis of specific intelligence inputs.