Delhi’s minor boy held in Agra for smuggling cannabis

Agra, July 24 (IANS) In a shocking incident, a Class 12 student of a Delhi school, along with two others, was arrested on Thursday by the GRP in Agra with 20 kg of cannabis which they were allegedly smuggling from Visakhapatnam.

The three were caught while trying to board a taxi for Delhi at the Agra railway station.

Vijay Singh, the Agra Cantt SHO, said, “It was the first time for the student while the other two accused had been working as a courier for some time.”

The student, a minor, who lives away from her parents, was paid Rs 5,000 to smuggle the contraband to Delhi.

One of the accused has been identified as Imran, 23, who is a tailor in Kailashpuri area, but originally belongs to Hooghly, West Bengal.

The second accused is Seema, 21, who is a school dropout and is the friend of the minor.

“Seema and Imran claimed, during interrogation, that they do not know each other, but had a mutual contact, identified as Rahul, who lives in Delhi. For every successful delivery of the cannabis consignment from Rajahmundry via Visakhapatnam to the national capital, the individual was paid Rs 5,000 to Rs 15,000. The minor — a Class 12 student — lives separately from her parents and was in need of money,” a GRP official said.

As part of the drug cartel courier’s modus operandi, they travelled to Visakhapatnam via flight or a premium train and returned with contraband in sleeper coaches of some Delhi-bound express train. Earlier, the gang used to travel in Rajdhani Express with cannabis, but frequent police raids forced the gang to change their modus operandi.

The SHO added that the group said that they opted for taxi services from either Agra Cantt or Mathura for the national capital.

The arrested persons, apparently, do not know the ‘kingpin’ of the racket and were only in contact with one Rahul in Delhi and one Shaheed in Rajahmundry.

All three have been booked under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. The minor will now be sent to a Ghaziabad-based juvenile rehabilitation centre, while the two others will be sent to Agra district jail.

According to the Agra Cantt GRP officials, a total of 519 kg of cannabis worth Rs 51.9 lakh has been seized since February from 35 men, five women and a minor.

–IANS

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