Udupi: In a significant anti-narcotics operation, Manipal police nabbed seven people — three accused of peddling drugs and four for consumption — exposing a network allegedly supplying narcotics to students, industrial workers, and employees in the region.
The crackdown began on August 16, when Inspector Mahesh Prasad and his team raided a flat at Manipal Auto Bar building near Ishwaranagar Narasinghe Temple Road in Herga village. Two accused — Afshin (26), a native of Varkala, Kerala, and Shivanidhi Acharya (20), from Indrali, Udupi — were arrested. Police seized 1.237 kg of ganja, 0.038 g of LSD strips, a weighing scale, cash, mobile phones, and packaging material.
In an earlier sweep, six migrant workers were tested for drug use, of whom four tested positive for ganja consumption — Ajees (28, Palakkad), Vipin (32, Kollam), Bipin (24, Thrissur), and Akhil (26, Pathanamthitta). They were taken into custody, and cases were booked.
The operation continued on August 17, when PSI Akshaya Kumari led a raid at a Vidyarathna Nagar flat belonging to Manish (34) of Kasargod. Police seized 653 grams of ganja, weighing scales, a crusher, Rs 3,000, and a mobile phone.
All three peddlers — Afshin, Shivanidhi, and Manish — were remanded to judicial custody. Notably, Afshin, a former Ayurveda student, was earlier booked in 2023 for MDMA sales. Shivanidhi, an engineering student in Mangaluru, allegedly supplied youth in Udupi–Manipal, while Manish, a welder, was supplying migrant labourers and has a prior case in Bekal, Kerala.
SP Hariram Shankar, IPS, had recently intensified anti-drug drives, including testing of students and workers, which helped expose the wider peddling network.