Woman techie held in Hyderabad for selling cannabis

Hyderabad, April 1:  A woman techie, supplying cannabis to some IT employees and youth in Hyderabad, has been arrested, police said on Friday.

Kondapaneni Mansi was arrested at Kompally in Medchal district.

According to police, she, along with her husband and two others, were selling ganja (cannabis) to customers on March 12. While police arrested two youths with 1.2 kg ganja, the couple managed to escape.

Since then, the police were on the lookout for the couple based on the information provided by the two arrested accused. Mansi and her husband M. Madan were finally caught on Thursday.

Hailing from Andhra Pradesh, the woman techie was allegedly selling ganja to customers in areas like Medchal, Nacharam, Malkajgiri, Banjara Hills, and Panjagutta.

Mansi, who did her engineering from Bhopal, had come to Hyderabad a few years ago and was working for an IT company in the city. She was living with her husband at Nacharam.

The arrest has been made at a time when police have intensified the crackdown on drugs. They are not just dealing firmly with the peddlers but are also acting against consumers.

According to police drug consumers are found in several sectors. A large number of students and techies are also said to be addicted to drugs.

Police on Thursday revealed that a 23-year-old engineer from the city died due to a drug overdose.

The techie, who was unemployed for the past two years, took a cocktail of LSD blots, ecstasy, cocaine and ganja. An overdose of the cocktail affected his nervous system, leaving him almost paralysed.

Deputy Commissioner of Police, Hyderabad Narcotics Enforcement Wing (H-New), G. Chakravarthy said the youth had become addicted after visits to Goa along with some friends including a peddler.

Police have arrested the man's friend Prem Upadhyay, a drug addict and peddler. Three others were also names as accused. They include a software engineer, a guitar teacher and a BTech student.

The police seized 6 LSD bottles, 10 ecstasy pills, and 100 grams of hash oil from them.

In another case, H-NEW along with Bowenpally police arrested two drug peddlers and six consumers. The police seized 1,040 grams of hash oil from them.

According to police, Naresh Reddy was paying Rs 60,000 or one kg of hash oil and was selling the same in small bottles of five grams and earning Rs 6 lakh.

The drug consumers include an advertising executive, an employee in an IT company and a student.

The police official said that in recent times, several youth and students have become addicted to drugs and they are involved in crime and other anti-social activities.

He appealed to the youth and students not to fall prey to drugs and request the parents to keep a watch on the activities of their children and feel free to approach police or pass information to police to curtail such anti-social activities.