Debt-ridden fashion designer turns to selling ganja

A 24-year-old student was arrested by the Vakola police yesterday with more than six kilos of ganja. The accused, Amresh Singh, was caught red-handed from outside a swish hotel in Kalina, where he had gone to deliver a bagful of the drug. A fashion designer, he had borne losses in his newly set-up business and was doing the job for a peddler to restore balance to his account sheets, cops said.

Amresh Singh (in yellow) was nabbed from outside a hotel in Kalina by a team of cops

Copspeak
Police Sub-Inspector Sameer Baravkar of Vakola police station said, "Singh has been charged under several sections of the NDPS (Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances) Act. He was produced in the Bandra court and remanded in police custody for two days." According to Senior Inspector Rajendra Singh Pardesi, Singh is a resident of Juhu Koliwada and hails from a well-to-do family. After obtaining a master's in science, he recently began a start-up in fashion desig ning.

Hard times
A police source from Vakola police station said his business suffered setbacks, and he incurred debt of over Rs 3 lakh. His parents did not know a thing about this liability. He spent some overwrought months looking for a way out of the mess when he met a drug peddler through some friends. The peddler asked Singh to deliver a consignment for him if he wanted to earn big money real quick. Singh agreed and went to dispatch the drugs.

Tipped-off
PSI Rajendra Gaikwad said, "We got a tip-off from our sources and laid a trap at the spot with policemen in plainclothes. When the accused arrived, we arrested him and recovered the drug from his bag." The police said they are investigating whether the accused had earlier supplied drugs. They are trying to get to the drug peddler who put the youth on the job.u00a0