CHHAVIANSHIKA SINGH
CHENNAI: Kotturpuram, which has as many as 22 educational institutions, has an ongoing drug problem, mostly because of its large student population, says Police Constable Vizhivittan, stationed at the police station in Kotturpuram.
However, Assistant Commissioner D A Raveendran at the Adyar Police Station says that drugs are not that much of an issue in their circle since more schools are located in the zone, and only one or two colleges.
“When we catch a student in possession of drugs, we usually don’t register a case against them, as it will ruin their life. Instead, we use the student to track down and nab their dealer”, says PC Vizhivittan.
On December 10, the police caught five students, all boys enrolled in a college in Adyar, in possession of drugs. They were all from well-connected families with friends in high places. “Even if we had arrested them they would’ve been out with one phone call”.
Later, their dealer, an “innocent-school-kid-type guy”, was caught at the D5 circle, around the Triplicane-Chepauk area.
PC Vizhivittan, who has been working at the Kotturpuram Police Station since the past three years, explains that the police have different procedures in place to deal with first-time and repeat offenders.
In case of a first-time offender, the police take the student into custody early, around 8 a.m. and leave them at the police station the whole day. “That is enough to dissuade them from repeating their offence”.
However, for addicts and repeat offenders, they take a sterner approach, their parents are called, and made to sign a written document stating that if their ward is caught again for the same offence, a case will be registered against them, and they shall be put behind bars.
EOM
CITY PULSE 