Pune: Amitesh Kumar, commissioner of police (CP), Pune, on Monday counselled 21 individuals found to be consuming drugs to understand the pattern of its use and abuse.“There were a few women, some waiters and people affiliated to clubs or pubs in the group. We are probing if they consumed the entire drugs they had purchased (from arrested members of a drug racket) or sold off some quantity,” the CP said.Police busted a drug racket after getting leads from suspects in a minor girl’s kidnapping case. The Pune Crime Branch personnel on Monday summoned 21 people who bought mephedrone from the arrested members of the racket.The CP said, “The police will now maintain a daily record of these individuals. Details such as age, whether they are students or employed, where they consumed drugs and how long they have been using drugs will be recorded to study the usage patterns.”The Uttamnagar police on April 1 arrested Rathya alias Sahil Gopal Rathod (28), Shubham Santosh Dahibhate (28), Rajan Gopal Nair (37) and Jatin Jaywant Kadam (26), all residents of Warje and Kondhwe Dhawade, and busted the drug racket. Later, two more men were arrested.Senior inspector Raghvendra Kshirsagar of the Uttamnagar police said, “We seized over 10 grams of mephedrone from the suspects. While studying the UPI applications of Rathod, we identified about 350 transactions in which he received money from various people. Of these, 76 individuals were identified and the Crime Branch was assigned the task of tracing them.”A former deputy sarpanch, among the 21 individuals summoned on Monday, said he had gone to a party with friends and consumed drugs under peer influence. He said payments were made using his cellphone, the police said. During the questioning, he said he did not engage in such activities earlier.Online deliveryThe alleged drug peddlers and their accomplices used online delivery applications to send drugs to customers. One of the women questioned in the case was affiliated to one such service provider, the police said.
