Noida: 20 held with drugs in operation to ‘clean up’ areas around colleges

NOIDA/GREATER NOIDA: As many as 20 persons were arrested with drugs, including 7.5 kg marijuana, 5.8 kg doda and 1.31 kg hashish on Saturday night under “Operation Clean 13”.
The latest crackdown, according to police, is meant to curb the sale of drugs in the vicinity of colleges and universities in Noida and Greater Noida. The police claimed to have carried out the operation in 58 places on Saturday between 6.30 pm and 10 pm, including police stations areas of Surajpur, Dankaur, Badalpur, Dadri, Rabupura, Ecotech III, Sector 49, Phase 2, Phase 3, Sector 49 and Sector 39.

The police, however, did not share criminal history of most of the arrested accused, saying that they are verifying the facts.
Three persons — Chandrabhan, Prashant and Dharmendra — were arrested during in an operation from near AVJ Heights and a school in Surajpur with 1.5 kg of marijuana. Three more, Ashok, Mahenda and Naresh, were arrested from the Kherli river area under Dankaur police station.
From the Badalpur area, one Brijesh was arrested with 1.3 kg doda while another Banwari, was arrested with 500 g of marijuana from near an inter-college.
In the Dadri area, one Shajid was arrested from near a university with 1 kg of marijuana and two, including Shatrughan and Harpal, were arrested with 1.6 kg of marijuana from Rabupura area. One Dileep Kumar was then arrested by Phase 2 police with 560 g of hashish near one inter-college in Bhangel.
From the Meghdootum Park in Sector 50, Sector 49 police arrested three accused – Anchal, Aman and Anshul – with 900 g of ganja.
Sector 39 police arrested Sonu, Deepak and Sunil from the Shashi Chowk and Sector 46 with 4.5 kg of doda.
From the Mamura and Parthala areas, two persons, Dheeraj and Roshi, were arrested with 2 kg marijuana.
Phase 3 police station SHO Devendra Singh told TOI that Roshi has earlier been booked for selling ganja, but they are verifying the criminal history of Dheeraj.
The police said among the accused, there are multiple drug dealers who were in touch with college students over WhatsApp and mobile calls. They would deliver the ‘pudhiyas’ of the required weight, ranging from five grams to 100 grams, they added.
The cost of the packets would depend on the quality of the drug and, according to the police, many of the accused sourced the drugs from inter-state borders.
TOI, on May 28, had reported about the easy availability of drugs in Noida, Greater Noida and across NCR. Most of the drugs are smuggled in via the rail and road network from different states of southern, eastern and northern India.
Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka, Odisha, Manipur and Himachal Pradesh are some of the states from where drugs are transported to Delhi-NCR, packed in sacks that are off-loaded a few kilometres away from popular railway stations in Delhi, such as the New Delhi Railway station. Gautam Budh Nagar SSP Vaibhav Krishna said that most of the drug sellers would provide the drugs to the students over vends and would be available on call.
Asked about the easy availability of drugs and involvement of security guards, canteen owners of the universities and colleges, Krishna said “the possibility of such cannot be denied” and were being looked into.