Min takes note of rise in narcotics use in Chanda, seeks CBI probe

Chandrapur: Alarm bells have started ringing with reports of easy availability and use of narcotics in Chandrapur city. Recently, two peddlers were arrested with 38 gram brown sugar and days later a drug peddler threatened a local news channel at a beer bar. On Wednesday night, a key witness of drug smuggling and sale network in the city was brutally thrashed.
Taking cognizance of these incidents, guardian minister Sudhir Mungnatiwar stated that rising drug culture in a small city like Chandrapur is very serious issue. “I am going to write to Union home minister Amit Shah seeking CBI inquiry into drug trafficking in the city. I will also urge deputy chief minister and state’s home minister Devendra Fadnavis to institute a (SIT) probe into the issue,” Mungnatiwar said.
He also directed SP Ravindra Singh Pardeshi to look into drug trafficking in the city and investigate if any officers are shielding the drug network.
City police had arrested a couple from Bagla Square locality in the city with 38 gm brown sugar on November 2. On November 16, a local news channel operator who had tried to expose the drug network was threatened with life by two drug peddlers from Nagpur at a beer bar.
Police registered a non-cognizable offence against one of the peddlers Bunty Shukla, while the other peddler, the kingpin and the bar operator, who had summoned the reporter to the place, were not named.
A former drug addict in know of how the network operates, stated that a drug known as MD (mephedrone) is smuggled here from Nagpur. “Addiction is increasing among youths, both from elite families and slum dwellers in the city,” he told select media persons on Thursday.
The former addict was abducted by four goons from old Warora Naka Square on Wednesday night. He was taken to a secluded place near Morva village, 8km from the city, and brutally thrashed. He was forced to say in a video that he is involved in drug peddling and those mentioned in the complaint filed by the news channel reporter have nothing to do with the drug network.
The victim was at the police station registering a complaint till filing of this report.
Explaining the modus operandi, he said, “The customer needs to pay money online into one of the 36 bank accounts of the kingpin in Nagpur. One gram of the MD drug costs Rs35,00 to Rs40,00. It is smuggled from Nagpur in small parcels in private travels buses. Some local peddlers smuggle the drugs from Nagpur and other places and sell them in small sachets of one gram or in pouches of aromatic pan masala,” he claimed.
“When such youths run out of money often opt to stealing to purchase the drugs. Girls who turn addict are even exploited sexually,” he said.