New Year Drug Bust: DU, JNU, Amity Students Held With LSD, Hashish

The agency seized 1.14 kg of charas (cannabis) and three LSD (Lysergic acid Diethylamide) blot papers.

Representational image for recreational drugs.

(Photo: Reuters)

Four students of premier Delhi NCR-based institutions – Delhi University (DU), Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and Amity University – have been arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) as part of a major New Year’s Eve crackdown against drugs rackets.

The agency, at the end of a three-day long operation that started on 28 December, said it has also seized 1.14 kg of charas (cannabis) and three LSD (Lysergic acid Diethylamide) blot papers that were supposed to be supplied to the party circuit of students in and around the DU's North Campus and other similar locations.

The four arrested under the provisions of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS), were identified as students of reputed academic institutions. Two are from Hindu College, DU and one student each from JNU and Amity University.

Aniruddh Mathur (22), Tenzin Phunchog (23) and Sam Mallick (21) are all abusers of charas and used to get it from Gaurav Kumar (22). They have also informed that abuse of drugs is rampant in the Delhi University campus area. They have given information about drug peddlers and others involved in the racket which is further being verified.

SK Jha, Deputy Director General (North), NCB

Kumar, a BA Economics (Hons) student at Hindu College, was named as the kingpin of the racket by the NCB, which added that the charas was being allegedly sourced by these students from Himachal Pradesh.

The NCB claimed that the students were both addicts and suppliers of these drugs.

Interrogation of the four students revealed, the NCB said, that Kumar was "into drug peddling in and around the North Campus area.

"He procures the charas from a man, Neelchand of Himachal Pradesh, and sells them to students and others in the campus area.

"The anti-narcotics agency said Gaurav Kumar along with Aniruddh Mathur and Tenzin Phunchog went to Himachal Pradesh on 24 December and they stayed at a village named Choj at a home stay, which is Neelchand's house.

Neelchand, it said, is a kingpin of drug trafficking racket operating from the hill state and was already wanted in a case of the NCB, Delhi. “The three went to different villages such as Choj, Kalga, Malana and abused charas during the trip,” the NCB said in a statement.

While Phunchog is studying Msc (Physics) from Hindu College, Mathur is an MBA (hospitality management) student at Amity and Malick is pursuing MA (Philosophy) from the JNU.