Two ganja gangs busted in Anantapur city

 Anantapur: In a major breakthrough, Anantapur police have busted two gangs, whose 18 members supplied ganja to people in the city addicted to the narcotic. Police seized 21 kg of the narcotic, apart from two auto-rickshaws and three motorcycles from them.

Addressing media on Saturday, Anantapur SP K.K.N. Anburajan disclosed that following a tip off, One Town and Fourth Town police raided two separate places in the town following reports of ganja being procured at cheap prices from the agency areas of Visakhapatnam and being sold in the city.

In their raid, One Town police caught Jafar Khan, leader of the gang, along with Shabbir and Nazir of Raninagar and Prasanthinagar areas of Anantapur. They had contacts with Arun alias Chitti, Ankith and few others of Chintapalli and Gollaprolu. Through them, Jafar procured the narcotic for Rs 4,000–5,000 a kg and sold it in Anantapur for Rs 15,000 to suppliers including Naveen, Satyanarayana, Lokesh, Jawed, Nakka Naveen and Sheik Shavali, who retailed the narcotic at the railway station, bus stand and other places in Anantapur city. A team led by One Town inspector Reddappa and technical sub-inspector Sudhakar arrested the gang near Cheruvukatta.

Similarly, a Fourth Town police team led by inspector Pratap Reddy busted another gang wherein Pavan Kumar of Tapovanam sold ganja to Lokanath Naidu of Somanathnagar at Rs 6,000 per kg. Naidu, in turn, marketed it for Rs 10,000 a kg through Gandla Bharath Kumar, Sayyad Khaja Hussain, Sake Thimoti, B. Vamshi Krishna, Gajula Dileep, C. Hema Sai Reddy and Reppala Azeez.