Bhubaneswar: Two drug peddlers along with seven brown sugar packets were Thursday held by the slum dwellers in Nayapalli here. The slum residents thrashed the duo before handing them over to the police.
The accused persons were identified as Dilip Pradhan of Saranakula area in Nayagarh and Ganesh Jena of Koradakanta area in Sahid Nagar police station limits here. The duo resided at the Nayagarh slum in Salia Sahi area under the Nayapalli police station limits here.
According to sources, the accused peddlers were secretly engaged in the illegal trade for the last couple of months. The residents of the slum asked them several times to desist from drugs peddling in the area but they did not pay any heed to their warnings. However, Thursday, the residents were irked when they were arguing loudly with a customer using filthy languages. They got hold of the duo and started beating them severely before calling the Nayapalli police. The peddlers were taken to the police station and a case (325/19) has been registered against them.
Meanwhile, five more peddlers were Thursday arrested by the Commissionerate Police in its ongoing drive against the persons engaged in the unlawful trade of narcotics in the Capital city. The Chandrasekharpur police arrested three peddlers while Nayapalli police and Airfield police apprehended one each. The five accused persons were sent to judicial custody Thursday after the rejection of their bail pleas.
On the other hand, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Anup Sahu, informed the media that around 30 cases have been registered against drug peddlers in the city till date at various police stations in Bhubaneswar Urban Police district.
He also revealed that a letter has been written to Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) to evict the drug peddlers from the slums in the Capital as most of them involved in the trade have been residing illegally in the slums from where they are running their trade.
The city police have submitted three proposals before the Commissioner of Police to rein in the narcotics dealers in the city.