Five college students held for alleged hand in drug trade

Kolkata: The narcotics cell of Kolkata Police on Thursday night arrested eight persons, including five college students, as they were allegedly involved in heroin trade. The other three arrested persons reportedly sold the drug to college students.

Since the past few days, the police had been getting information from their sources that some college students were buying drugs from a few persons in South Kolkata. However, the police couldn't identify the sellers.

Based on the information from various sources, cops started keeping an eye in and around South Kolkata colleges. On Thursday night, they were tipped off about some young boys, who were seen in Sarat Bose Road area. Around 11 pm, they spotted a group of five boys, who were taking heroin.

Cops found 3.5 grams of heroin worth Rs 8,000 from their possession and immediately arrested them.

All the arrested students are within 23 to 29 years of age. A case has been initiated in this regard at the Bhowanipur police station under sections 21 (a) (punishment for contravention in relation to manufactured drugs and preparations), 27 (punishment for consumption of any narcotic drug or psychotropic substance) and 29 (punishment for abetment and criminal conspiracy) of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.

According to police, the arrested students came from noble families.

After questioning them, the police came up with names of three persons, who allegedly sold drugs to them. Cops also got hold of their mobile numbers and started tracking the location of their phones. But, they couldn't reach out to the drug peddlers. Later, the police asked the students to call up the accused persons on pretext of buying heroin.

On Thursday night, around 2:30 am, three people reached the designated place on S P Mukherjee Road, near Ashutosh College, where cops were waiting for them in disguise.

The trio identified as Aman Gupta, Ashim Hait and Pritam Patra were intercepted by the narcotics cell team and later they were arrested.

Cops found that these persons were carrying 40 grams of heroin worth Rs 1 lakh.

During interrogation, they said they sold narcotics substances to college students across the city. It is said students usually placed orders over phone. But the place of delivery was decided by the seller. They also confessed that they were running the racket since the past three months.

A few months ago, the narcotics cell had arrested several drug peddlers and found that students from several well-known colleges were their customers.

Following the arrests, that a random crackdown was planned and vigilance was stepped up in and around colleges.