Law grad, engineer, interior designer among 5 held in Pune with LSD stamps worth over Rs 51 lakh

A team from the Anti Narcotics Cell was working on an input that some suspects were moving sheets of LSD stamps among themselves through a well-known instant delivery mobile application before selling individual stamps to buyers directly, including at parties.

On May 23, making the first breakthrough in the case, Rohan Gawai (24), a final year MBA student of a city college was arrested and a few LSD stamps were allegedly seized from him.

Officials said that Gawai’s questioning revealed that he was allegedly part of a ring which was operating in Pune and was involved in procurement, trafficking of LSD and further peddling them to customers — mainly the young crowd, including college going students and young professionals.

On Wednesday, the police arrested four other suspects in the case and identified them as Sushant Gaikwad (26), an engineer, Dheeraj Lalwani (24) a law graduate, Deepak Gehlot (25), an interior designer and Onkar Patil (25), a management studies graduate. All the five arrested suspects are residents of Pune.

Inspector Vinayak Gaikwad of the Anti Narcotics Cell said, “From the arrested suspects, we have seized as many as 1,032 blotter paper stamps laced with LSD worth over Rs 51 lakh. Our investigation suggests that these suspects were operating a drug ring in which some were looking after the procurement of the LSD stamps from a supplier outside Pune, some were looking after moving the drug through online delivery apps while some were peddling them as per demand from the buyers.”

He added, “We have launched a probe into their supply network and are investigating whether there are any more suspects who were part of the ring or connected to it.”

LSD, which is a very potent psychedelic and mild altering drug, is most commonly sold in the form of stamps also called blotts, which are small pieces of blotting paper sheets on which the liquid LSD is spread and is held on or under the tongue for use. Use of LSD results in heightened emotional and sensory perception and also hallucinations which can be auditory, visual and also mental.