A house surgeon at the Thrissur Government Medical College was held with drugs on Tuesday.
The police seized 2.5 g of MDMA (ecstasy) and other synthetic drugs from Akhil Mohammed Hussain, who was staying at a private hostel near the medical college. The drugs were brought from Bengaluru, according to the police.
The Medical College police and the City Shadow police were keeping vigil as there were reports that a drug network had been active near the medical college, concentrating around private hostels.
The police had earlier nabbed the peddler who distributed the drugs to Mr. Hussain. The police raided the hostel based on the information provided by the peddler. The drugs were kept under his bed. Mr. Hussain has only 15 more days to complete his house surgency. The police are investigating whether there are more drug users in the medical college.
There were indications that a huge network has been functioning in Thrissur concentrating around professional education centres, including medical colleges. There were reports that students were using synthetic drugs during examination time to study overnight. The police have received information on those distributing drugs at the medical college and nearby places. Such networks are booming near professional institutions as the students are willing to buy drugs at exorbitant prices.
The house surgeon who was taken into custody has reportedly been using drugs for some time. The police are tracking the phone numbers from which calls were received to the house surgeon’s phone demanding drugs.