Ahmedabad’s call centre owner arrested selling cocaine in Pune

Ahmedabad’s BPO call centre owner Tarang Ranchhodbhai Patel(24) has been arrested by Pune police on Wednesday morning for possessing and selling cocaine in Pune. Tarang’s GJ-1 passing Hyudai car has also been seized by Pune police. Tarang was arrested along with Murtuza Kasam Ved (22), a senior associate of Pune based IT company.

About 610 gm of cocaine, worth Rs 30.50 lakh, was seized from Tarang and Murtuza by a police team, led by inspector Sunil Tambe of the anti-terrorism cell of the crime branch near the race course.

Murtuza, an IT engineer, is a senior associate at a city-based IT company. Patel, also an engineer, runs a call centre in Ahmedabad for a private insurance company, the police said.

Claiming this was one of the biggest seizures of cocaine in the city in the recent past, inspector Tambe said he received a tip-off that Ved would be near the race course on Wednesday morning. “The informer said that he would be receiving a consignment of cocaine,” he said.

Around 10 am, the police team identified Murtuza near the race course. He appeared to be waiting for someone. “Within half an hour, a car arrived. We nabbed Murtuza and the driver. While searching the car, we found cocaine under the seat,” Tambe said. “The cocaine is very pure and is valued between Rs 5,000 and 7,000 per gm.”

Investigations revealed that Patel had brought the cocaine from Gujarat and was going to sell it in Pune through Murtuza, an alleged drug addict. “Murtuza and Patel knew each other from the time Murtuza lived in Ahmedabad,” Tambe said.

He said Murtuza was going through financial difficulties and when he contacted Patel for help, Patel had asked him to sell the consignment of cocaine in Pune.

The two have been charged under sections of the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act and a case has been registered at Wanowrie police station. “We will produce them in court on Thursday,” Tambe said.