Telangana: Chocolates with drugs seized
The chocolates were imported from Gujarat.
Nizamabad: One doesn’t associate chocolates with drugs, but acting on a tip-off, Prohibition and Excise officials did just that and found that ganja and bhang were in the chocolates they seized from a shop in Nizamabad on Wednesday.
Excise officials seized 28 boxes containing 8,324 chocolates from Padmavathi Novelties, opposite Lalitha Mahal theatre on Gurbabadi Road. The chocolates were imported from Gujarat. The shop has been under surveillance for some days. The chocolates were sent for chemical examination at the Excise laboratory, which confirmed the presence of ganja and bhang.
Each chocolate is reportedly sold for Rs 5. Students and workers (hamalis) at the Nizamabad agriculture market yard are allegedly habituated to these chocolates.
Chocolate Shop owner arrested
The seized chocolates are worth Rs 50,000. The shop owner, Sharath Kumar Sarda, has been arrested and sent to judicial remand and a case has been registered under the Narcotics Drugs & Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985. Prohibition and Excise deputy commissioner, Nizamabad division, P. David Ravikanth, told this newspaper that a team will be sent to Gujarat to get more information on the production and sale of the chocolates. Sale of drug- coated food items is prohibited in Telangana state, he added. The chocolates clearly indicated on the package that ganja and bhang were among the ingredients, but a separate licence is required for sale of such items, Mr Ravikanth explained.