Udupi: Manipal police nab 7 for drug peddling, consumption; seize ganja, LSD

Mangalore Today News Network

Udupi, Aug 19, 2025: In a major crackdown on narcotics in Manipal, police arrested seven individuals — three on charges of drug peddling and four for consumption.

Among the arrested are two locals and five from Kerala, all allegedly part of a network supplying drugs to students, industrial workers, and private company employees in the area.

On August 16, under the leadership of Inspector Mahesh Prasad, Manipal police raided a flat at the Manipal Auto Bar building near Ishwaranagar Narasinghe Temple Road in Herga village.

Two peddlers — Afshin (26), from Varkala in Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram district, and Shivanidhi Acharya (20), of Indrali in Udupi taluk — were arrested from the flat. Police seized 1.237 kg of ganja, 0.038 g of LSD strips, plastic pouches, a digital weighing scale, Rs 2,000 in cash, and two mobile phones.

Earlier, acting on inputs, police had tested six migrant workers for drug use. Four of them — Ajees (28) from Palakkad, Vipin (32) from Kollam, Bipin (24) from Thrissur, and Akhil (26) from Pathanamthitta, Kerala — tested positive for ganja consumption and were taken into custody. Cases have been registered against them.

Continuing the investigation, on August 17, PSI Akshaya Kumari led another raid at a flat in Vidyarathna Nagar, Manipal, belonging to Manish (34), a native of Kasargod, Kerala. Police recovered 653 grams of ganja, two digital weighing scales, a crusher, Rs 3,000 in cash, and one mobile phone.

All three peddlers — Afshin, Shivanidhi, and Manish — were produced in court and remanded to judicial custody.

Afshin, a former Ayurveda college student in Manipal, was earlier booked in 2023 for selling MDMA and is accused of targeting engineering students and workers.

Shivanidhi, an engineering student in Mangaluru, allegedly supplied drugs to students and youth in Udupi–Manipal.

Manish, a welder, is said to have supplied ganja to migrant labourers in Manipal and has a previous drug case registered in Bekal, Kerala.

Udupi SP Hariram Shankar, IPS, had recently directed teams to intensify anti-drug operations, including student and worker drug tests. This drive led to several consumption cases being detected and the busting of a larger peddling network allegedly run by Kerala-based individuals in Manipal.