The accused in the ephedrine drug racket busted by the Customs and Central Excise Department, Bengaluru, Kuppuswamy Arunachalam Venkatesam, who allegedly booked the Ephedrine parcel at a private courier in Vijayawada, had decided to operate from Andhra Pradesh to avoid the dragnet laid by the enforcement agencies in Chennai, the police have said.
A native of Vanambadi village on the Andhra Pradesdh-Tamil Nadu border, Arunachalam was working in an electronic shop in Burma Bazar. He was an expert in smuggling electronic goods from Dubai and other places, the police said.
The accused allegedly entered into a deal with two smugglers to send 4.5 kgs of Ephedrine powder to Australia, and had decided to book the consignment in Vijayawada.
“Arunachalam, who can speak Telugu language, came to Vijayawada and selected DST Courier for sending consignment to Australia. As part of the plan, he had conducted a trial by sending four garment parcels by submitting on engineering student, K. Gopi Sai’s Aadhar Card in the last few months. He used to stay in a lodge at Challapalli Banglow whenever he visited Vijayawada,” said Police Commissioner Kanthi Rana Tata.
He befriended G. Teja, an employee of the courier office, and asked him to book Ephedrine drug powder on his Aadhar card and Teja agreed to it. The courier company had collected about ₹15,000 for sending the parcel to Australia, Mr. Kanthi Rana Tata said.
The police team, which camped in Chennai, arrested Arunachalam, at the airport when he was returning from Dubai and seized smuggled cellphones, laptops, memory cards, DVD players, Dubai and Indian currency and other material from his possession.
Deputy Commissioner of Police D. Mary Prasanthi said that the police were trying to trace the smugglers and find out the source of the drug powder.
“Arunachalam had collected the photocopy of Gopi Sai’s Aadhar card, when he submitted it in a hotel in Chennai. He had used it for doing many illegal activities,” said Task Force Additional DCP K. Srinivas Rao.
Meanwhile, Gopi Sai had lodged a complaint with the Patamata police, alleging that some miscreants had stolen his Aadhar card and used the same for smuggling drugs.
“We will file a custody petition for Arunachalam,” Ms. Prasanthi said.
