College student arrested for peddling ganja in Coimbatore

COIMBATORE: The Peelamedu police arrested a college student at Poonga Nagar near the airport in the city on Friday night for peddling ganja. Another student is on the run. The students created WhatsApp groups called ‘Dope’ and ‘Stuff’ to supply ganja to college students. There were more than 80 members in the group.
The arrested student is V Gokul, 21, a native of Dindigul district, who was doing an undergraduate course in a private arts and science college in the city. Another student, Yugesh, of Theni district, was pursuing a PG programme in a university.
Around 4pm on Friday, sub-inspector M Rajkumar and his team, while conducting a vehicle check on Avinashi Road, stopped two students walking on the road on a suspicious manner. When asked for their details, they gave contradictory information. “Immediately we checked them and found a ganja packet. When questioned, they told they bought the packet from a student named Gokul,” a police officer said.
The police team learned that Gokul was staying in a rented house at Poonga Nagar and went there. “We found 950g of ganja in the house and arrested Gokul,” the officer said.
The preliminary inquiry revealed that Yugesh was Gokul’s roommate. “Yugesh procured ganja from Theni. Whenever they were in posssession of ganja, the duo created a WhatsApp group and informed the members about the availability of the contraband, price and place of distribution. After selling the batch, they deleted the group. From Gokul’s mobile phone, details of members in the group were collected, and all of them are college students,” sub-inspector Rajkumar said.
Police registered a case against Gokul under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. He was produced before a judicial magistrate on Saturday morning and remanded in judicial custody later. Further investigation is on.