Two students caught in coke bust in Tirupati

TIRUPATI: In the first-ever seizure of its kind in Tirupati, Task Force sleuths seized 800 gm of a psychotropic substance and arrested two students on Wednesday. Though some police officials described the substance as ‘’somewhat similar to cocaine,’’ sources said it could be nitrazepam, a drug used in the treatment of moderate to severe insomnia. It has sedative properties and is marketed in some countries in the form of tablets.  Samples of the seized substance have been sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory in Hyderabad.‘’We cannot say for sure that it is cocaine but it is definitely a psychotropic substance,’’ a senior police official told Express. Police said they were tipped off about the sale of ‘cocaine’ by two students and sent a decoy party to strike a deal with them. Subsequently, the young men -- Madhu Kumar, a dropout from Satya Sai Institute of Engineering in Anantapur, and Pradeep Kumar, a third-year student of Sri Annamacharya Engineering College at Rajampet -- were picked up from Maruti Nagar in Korlagunta junction in Tirupati Wednesday morning. The substance was sent from someone in Hyderabad to a youngster based in Rajampet in Kadapa district who in turn sold it to the two students.Even as efforts began to trace the peddler from Hyderabad, Pradeep revealed to the police that he bought the stuff for Rs. 60,000 from a friend who assured him it could fetch him a minimum profit of Rs. 3 lakh. Sources said Pradeep Kumar is the son of one Ramana Reddy from Pullampet in Kadapa district and Madhukar is a resident of Korlagunta, Tirupat