Woman techie among 3 held with drugs in Noida, was to be supplied at parties: cops

Police nabbed the three and recovered 289 MDMA (methylenedioxymethamphetamine) pills worth over ₹25 lakh in the international market from their possession

The Gautam Budh Nagar police on Monday arrested a woman and two others for allegedly being in possession of synthetic drugs that is estimated to be worth about ₹25 lakh, said Gautam Budh Nagar police on Monday, adding that the drugs were meant to be supplied at parties in the city.

Police said the gang may have links to drug supply chains from the Netherlands and Afghanistan. (HT Photo)

Rambadan Singh, deputy commissioner of police (central Noida), said the police received a tip-off about a gang supplying drugs to rave parties in Noida and Gurugram. Acting on the information, police nabbed the three and recovered 289 MDMA (methylenedioxymethamphetamine) pills worth over ₹25 lakh in the international market from their possession.

“On the intervening night of Sunday and Monday, investigators received a tip-off about a drug trafficker’s presence in Phase 3, Noida area. A trap was laid by the police and the suspect was nabbed from near a petrol pump in Phase 3. He was identified as Pulkit Kapoor (24), a resident of Sector 120 and native of Aligarh district. As many as 150 MDMA pills were found on him,” said Singh.

The officer said that upon interrogation, the suspect revealed the identities of two of his associates and informed the police that they had supplied him the drugs.

“Following this information, two more suspects were nabbed from their residences. They were identified as Abhishek Chauhan (26), a resident of Mamura village in Noida, and Pooja Gupta (24), a resident of Sector 61,” said Singh.

He added that Gupta is a computer engineer who graduated from a reputed engineering college in Vellore, Tamil Nadu. “Gupta belongs to Gorakhpur; her father works with the Railways and her mother is a doctor. The other two suspects are unemployed,” said the officer.

The DCP said the three suspects allegedly supplied pills to clandestine rave parties in the National Capital Region.

“Our teams have recovered a total of 289 pills of MDMA from the possession of the three suspects. These suspects have been operating from Noida since the past one year,” said DCP Singh.

He said the gang may have links to drug supply chains from the Netherlands and Afghanistan.

“The box in which the pills were found had addresses in Netherlands and Afghanistan written on them. Hence, police are investigating whether the drugs were purchased on the dark web,” said Amit Pratap Singh, assistant commissioner of police-1 (Central Noida).

He said the three suspects revealed the names of three more associates.

“The suspects revealed that they procured the drugs from absconding suspect Didipya. Two more people, identified by their fist names as Suryansh and Pranay, are involved in the syndicate. Upon investigation, it has been found that these two suspects are wanted by the nacrotics control bureau in Delhi,” ACP Singh said.

He added that Chuahan used to procure the pills from Didipya and made the payments through Gupta’s bank account. “We are checking on the transaction details as most of the deals were by cash. The suspects supplied these pills on demand and they were also sold by hand through suppliers. Sometimes they themselves would also carry pills to parties in Noida and Gurgaon. Details of their procurement sources, mode of payment, etc are being investigated,” said the ACP.

He added that Kapoor had met Chauhan at a party in Noida after which he got involved in the trade.

“An FIR has been lodged in the case under provisions of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act at the Phase 3 police station and further investigation is underway. The three suspects were produced before a magistrate and sent to judicial custody,” the ACP said.