The Thiruvananthapuram City police have nabbed an employee of the Tamil Nadu government-run transport utility for allegedly smuggling marijuana. He was purportedly caught with 5 kg of the contraband.
The accused, Tirunelveli-native Jayaraj, 43, who is a driver of State Express Transport Corporation (SETC), was caught shortly after the inter-State bus from Ooty arrived at Thampanoor on Thursday. After purportedly obtaining the ganja from Ooty, the accused intended to supply the contraband to a drug peddler in the city for sale among school and college students.
According to the police, the government staffer remained self-assured that he would not be suspected by the police who largely restrict search for drugs aboard buses to luggage carried by passengers. However, the police had gathered information regarding the accused from those who had been previously caught in similar cases.
Jayaraj used to purportedly hand over the contraband after the vehicle reached the garage meant for SETC buses at Killipalam. On Thursday, he was caught from the CITU road in Killipalam while he was allegedly on his way to hand the contraband over to his client.