Wednesday, 31 August 2022 | PNS | Dehradun
The police arrested a gang of three young men on Tuesday who were posing as food delivery agents of Swiggy and Zomato for supplying smack across Dehradun. The accused named Saurabh Kumar (20), Neeraj Kumar (21) and Vishal Kumar (20) belong to Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh but were currently living in Dehradun.
The Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) of Dehradun, Daleep Singh Kunwar said that a complainant Vijendra Kumar Singhal filed a complaint against an unknown man who allegedly stole his iPhone in the Clement Town area on Sunday. On analysing the CCTV camera footage of the area during the investigation, the SSP said that the police found that a man was stealing the phone before getting away on his motorcycle. The police found the details of the number plate of the motorcycle which was found to be registered at the name of Saurav Kumar, a resident of UP. The SSP said that the network of informers was activated who informed that the three accused would return to Dehradun from Saharanpur in a car on Tuesday.
The police nabbed the accused on their way to the city and recovered the iPhone, 70 grammes of smack and Rs 3.5 lakh cash which they confessed to have earned by selling smack. The SSP said that the accused Neeraj revealed during the investigation that he and his older brother Vishal have been to jail before in Dehradun where they met some drug peddlers and decided to be peddlers of smack to earn quick money. Neeraj has been working as a gym trainer and Vishal as a food delivery agent. Neeraj said that they roped in Saurabh to their plan too, who was their neighbour in Saharanpur, as per the SSP. He said that according to the accused, they have been living in Dehradun for about four years during which they came across several people who are addicted to drugs. Since there are several educational institutes, they considered it to be easy to target students to get addicted to the smack, said Kunwar.
The accused further told the police that they chose to supply drugs as delivery agents because they are allowed to make late night food deliveries without being suspected much by the police. The SSP stated that as per their plan, Saurabh and Vishal started working as delivery boys in Swiggy and Zomato. They used to buy smack from Deoband in Saharanpur and bring it to Dehradun to deliver it to the buyers by posing as delivery agents, said the police. The police said that the accused has allegedly bought a plot in Pitthuwala worth Rs 25 lakh besides a car, a KTM bike and three motorcycles from the money earned by selling smack. The police has filed a case against the accused under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act and will be presented in the court soon too.
