Mumbai Crime: How this dad turned detective to save his son from drugs

The father observes his son growing increasingly irritable and returning home late. Upon being confronted, the son avoids answering any questions.

EXCLUSIVE » A father's quest to save his only son from drug abuse led to a Rs 2.18-lakh MDMA bust on Tuesday. The businessman observed the drug abuse habits of students at several city colleges with the help of his employees and informed the Anti-Narcotics Cell (ANC), which arrested two peddlers who had been turning students into addicts.

Wanting to get to the root of the issue, the father asks his employees to keep an eye on his son.

Speaking to mid-day the father said, "Since the past few days, I'd observed that my son had grown increasingly irritable and started coming home late. When we asked him why this was happening, he became aggressive and avoided our questions. Finally, I decided to find out the reason behind this." The businessman then asked some of his employees to keep an eye on his son. They began following him from home to college and kept track of his friends and other people he met. On the third day, they saw him smoking outside his college. They clicked pictures of the same and sent it to the father.

The employees do as they are told. One of the days, they see the son smoking outside college and send pictures of the same to his dad. Illustration/Uday Mohite

Turning into addicts
"My son was at the very first stage of hell. I decided to get more information on this and visited four to five colleges, some pool clubs and hookah parlours with my employees. I observed many students aged 17-20 turning into drug addicts at some of the joints. I marked these places and after confirming the spots, I approached ANC with my observations," he added.

The father then visits some colleges, pool clubs and hookah parlours and sees college students turning into drug addicts at some of the joints.

Sources said when ANC received the details, they began their investigation. After a week, they arrested two accused behind Oberoi Mall in Goregaon with 1.09 kg of MDMA.

After confirming some of the spots, he approaches the ANC with his observations.

Accused caught
Shivdeep Lande, DCP, ANC said, "Our Bandra unit worked on credible information given by an informant. A successful trap was laid, where two male accused were arrested." The arrested accused have been identified as Danish Asif Sayyad alias Danny, 23 (caught with 55 gm of MD valued at Rs 1.10 lakh) and Kashish Gupta, 21 (caught with 54 gm of MD valued at Rs 1.08 lakh). They were produced before the court on the same day and remanded in police custody till March 23.

The ANC investigates the information further and arrests two drug peddlers from behind Oberoi Mall in Goregaon. They also recover drugs worth Rs 2.18 lakh from the duo.

The father said, "I have taken my son away from this hell. I advise all fathers with college-going children to keep a watch on them. As per my observations, the peddlers targeted places where youths gathered. They'd first give out free samples to turn them into addicts and later involve more students." Official sources from ANC said they have information about the nexus the peddlers operated in.

1.09 kg Quantity of MDMA recovered from the peddlers

Also read: Mumbai: College kids turn informants to take down drug peddlers

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