On Wednesday, the Telangana Prohibition and Excise department made yet another arrest of two people involved in the drug trade. A former NASA scientist and his partner were arrested with LSD and cannabis.
The accused were identified as Anish Dundoo (29) and his friend Rital Agarwal (26.) The officials seized 1.2 kgs of cannabis from Ritul and 16 blots of LSD from Anish.
A media report said, officials caught the accused after analyzing the call log and message records from the 10 peddlers that were arrested over the last two weeks. The officials picked up Anish from his office at Paradise and Ritul from Nampally.
An official was quoted as saying, “Anish, an American passport holder, had studied at Doon School in Dehradun and was earlier with NASA. Over the last few months, he procured drugs including cocaine, LSD and MDMA through the Dark Web from a site called Lunacy, eight times. We nabbed Anish based on credible information.”
The officials also reported Ritul graduated from ICFAI Business School with a BBA degree and he was also purchasing the drugs from the Dark Web and paying with crypto currencies like bitcoins.
The accused were questioned and they revealed the parcels carrying the drugs had Netherlands postage on them.
In the past two weeks, the officials in Hyderabad have cracked down a major drug ring that involved 1000 students using LSD and MDMA some as young as 13.
The raid even revealed a number of Tollywood stars as the peddler’s clientele. The Special Task Force has sent out notices to nine Tollywood personalities including two heroines. The notice has ordered them to appear in front of the officials within the next 6 days.
The officials have not disclosed the names of any of the actors or students.
Director of Enforcement, Akun Sabharwal said, “We can’t judge at the moment who the addicts and suppliers are. We have sent notices to them. We can’t reveal names or the number now. The notices have been sent under Section 67 of the NDPS Act.”
A warning has been issued by the Movie Artistes’ Association (MAA,) to the celebrities asking them to not indulge in drugs consumption.
Producer Suresh Babu said, “We will conduct an awareness program against drugs use. We will also be providing treatment. Hyderabad will lose its charm if the film industry gets a bad name. This should not be the case.”
