In a case of fence eating the crop, even as the city police have been cracking down on ganja peddlers and seizing hundreds of kilos as part of their drive against drug peddling, an Armed Reserve constable himself has been arrested for supplying ganja in the city. And to the shock of the senior police officials, it emerged that he has been indulging in the crime for the past eight months.
Chennai:
AR constable S Arun Prasanth (23) of Purasawalkam was held along with three others on Wednesday by the Fort police and 1.10 kg ganja was seized from him. Probe revealed that he joined the police department in 2017 as a Grade II constable.
Arun Prasanth reportedly told police that he was addicted to liquor and ganja and had been struggling to settle his debt when his ganja-smoking friend auto driver Ramesh and his friend Prem Kumar gave him an idea that they can smuggle ganja in bulk from Andhra Pradesh to distribute it in the city for a bigger margin.
“Arun Prasanth allegedly paid Rs 15,000 to Ramesh to get the contraband from Andhra Pradesh. He then packed the ganja in small sachets to distribute to peddlers. The duo convinced Arun Prasanth that his uniform would protect him as police will not suspect him,” said police. Based on Arun Prasanth’s confession, R Ramesh (40) of Vyasarpadi and G Premkumar (20) of Mylapore were also arrested and another 1.90 grams were seized from them.
It was after securing one M Balamurugan (21) of Annai Sathya Nagar with 200 grams of ganja in the wee hours of Wednesday that police got a hint of Arun Prasanth’s designs. He revealed that he bought the stuff from Arun Prasanth, which led to the arrest and remand of all four on Wednesday night. An autorickshaw was also seized from them.
Infamous past
Incidentally, an SSI attached to the same Fort police station was arrested in 2017 for not accounting the 22 kg ganja he seized and taking it home. Investigation revealed that the SSI was in close contact with ganja peddlers in the area and was planning to sell the seizure to them.
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