Chief Minister for defusing ticking drug time bomb

Chandrashekar Rao is understood to have discussed the issue with his deputy, who, in turn, directed the Excise officials to handle the felons with iron hand

Hyderabad: Perturbed by the growing number of cases of drug abuse in the State capital, Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao is understood to have taken a serious note of the issue and has decided to crush the ‘drug mafia’ that is fast spreading its tentacles in schools and colleges in and around the city.

Ever since the Excise Enforcement Directorate unearthed the operation of a drug mafia in the twin cities recently, Chandrashekar Rao has been keenly monitoring the situation and getting apprised the progress in the investigations. He is reportedly upset over the fact that many school and college students are lured to become drug addicts.

The Chief Minister is understood to have discussed the issue with Deputy Chief Minister Kadiyam Srihari, who is holding Education portfolio and directed him to deal with the situation to ensure that innocent schoolchildren do not fall a prey to the nefarious activities of the drug mafia.

Accordingly, the Deputy Chief Minister convened a high-level meeting of the concerned officials of his Ministry along with top officials of the Excise and Police departments to review the situation and initiate appropriate measures to firmly deal with the menace of drug peddlers.

Expressing grave concern over school and college students being targeted by the drug mafia, the Deputy Chief Minister also wanted the authorities of educational institutions to take foolproof measures to prevent drug peddlers operating on the vicinity of their institutions. At the same time, he also wanted the parents to also keep a vigil on their children.

In the meantime, the SIT constituted by the Excise and Enforcement Directorate stepped up its investigation and launched vigorous searches and raids where the drug mafia was suspected to be operating. As a result, the SIT arrested two more drug peddlers from the old city - Deepak and Abdul Rasheed - and seized from them large quantities of narcotic substances, including LSD. With this, the total number of those arrested in connection with the drug racket has gone up to 10.

Both Deepak and Abdul are stated to be well-known to Kelvin, the kingpin of the drug mafia and his close associate Brendan Ben, who was arrested on Wednesday.

The SIT has established Kelvin’s links with the drug mafia operating from Goa and from where he used to get his supplies for making them available to his clientele, which include school and college students, IT professionals in MNCs and those connected with film field including produces and others.

It was found by the investigating officials that Kelvin created separate dealers for supplying the drugs to students, IT professionals, film producers and so on.

Now having established Kelvin and his associates’ links with the Goa mafia, the SIT is intending to seek their police custody for further grilling to unearth the source of supply of the drugs to the mafia, which in turn made them available to its clients. Kelvin and others are in judicial custody and lodged in Chanchalguda Central Jail.

Director of Excise Enforcement Akun Sabharwal disclosed that 26 schools and 27 colleges were sent advisory notices with regard to the drug menace.

A meeting of school and college authorities along with parents’ associations will also be held on July 14 to review and discuss the problem and the measures to be taken to prevent the students from falling into the trap of the drug mafia.