Seeds of drug racket sown in Cherlapally prison

HYDERABAD: Seeds for the drug racket busted by Madhapur police on Monday were sown when the two accused - film producer K. Venkateswara Rao and his accomplice Shobharaj - met for the first time in Cherlapally prison after being arrested in different cases.
While Rao was arrested in a bank-related fraud by CBI officials, Shobharaj was held in another criminal case. The film producer was in debts after a Telugu film he made fell flat at the box office and his subsequent real estate ventures too failed. “On learning about his financial crisis, Shobharaj consoled him assuring to suggest an easy way to make a fast buck,” police sources said.
Arranging deals After coming out on bail, Shobharaj introduced a person hailing from Gunrock Enclave area in Secunderabad to the film producer. The person, whom police believe to be holding the key to several crucial details of the drug racket, used to arrange deals for supplying Ephedrine from Bangalore.
The arrested duo’s confession suggested that the base for the drug racket was in Bangalore. “Apparently Ephedrine being manufactured in some laboratories or units in Karnataka is being smuggled out to other parts of the country,” a police officer involved in the investigation said. So far, two consignments of 100 kg of Ephedrine were smuggled to Hyderabad from Bangalore. Of this, the arrested duo managed to sell 75 kg of Ephedrine and pocketed nearly Rs. 15 lakh after giving away shares to others involved in the racket. While the chemical was supplied from Bangalore, mediators from Hyderabad bought it and then sold it to buyers from Mumbai.
It was Shobharaj who contacted drug peddlers in Mumbai. Shobharaj first met them in a lodge in Mumbai and continued to keep in touch with them. The person who used to come from Mumbai to collect the chemical too was only a link but neither the film producer nor his accomplice knew to whom he was subsequently selling the chemical.
“The drug peddler would come to Hyderabad by train in second class. After making sure that the consignment was ready, he would contact his handlers who would send them flight ticket and he would fly back to Mumbai,” sources explained.