A 40-year-old man was arrested on Monday from near the KR Puram Railway Station for ferrying 3.5 kg of ganja, placed inside LPG cylinders, in his auto rickshaw.
The man behind this ingenuous method of smuggling has been identified as Gulab Jaan, a resident of Vijinapura. According to the police, he placed the packets of ganja inside a small ‘secret’ opening at the bottom of the cylinders.
Officials now suspect that this is the new modus operandi used by traffickers to transport drugs.
"Welders and fabricators have joined the drug cartel, and we suspect that more LPG cylinders may have been tampered with. We are also probing how the racketeers managed to tamper with the LPG cylinders since it raises safety issues," Additional Commissioner of Police (East Zone) Seemant Kumar Singh told Deccan Herald.
Upon interrogation, Gulab Jaan allegedly told the police that he was working under the instruction of his associate, Bahaddur. Police suspect that the auto driver might have just been just a mule.
"We have managed to collect information about Bahaddur and will arrest him soon. Only then can we trace the others involved in the racket and find out where the ganja came from," a police officer told The Times of India.
According to police sources, the persons he was selling the drugs to were unknown to Gulab Jaan. They suspect that the drugs were meant to be sold to college students eventually and other users in the outskirts of Bangalore.
A case has been registered in the Ramamurthy Nagar Police Station. Other than the contraband, the police seized Rs 600 in cash, a mobile phone and the autorickshaw that was used to ferry the trucks.
Incidentally, in the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) special council meeting held on the same day, the growing ‘ganja problem’ was the most talked about topic, reported Bangalore Mirror.
“My ward has witnessed a major drug racket. People have been selling these drugs, running their businesses from rented houses. The police department has not been able to take any action against them,” Poornima, the KR Puram corporator said.
For the Bengaluru police, seizing ganja is not uncommon. In fact, it is the most common drug that is seized by the police. Of the 269 kg of illegal drugs seized in 2016, 254 kg alone was ganja.