Bid to make ‘ganja gel’ turns fatal, 1 dies, another injured

Though the incident happened on Thursday night, it came out only on Monday as the personnel at two stations bickered over jurisdiction.

After the spirit mixed in the potion caught fire when one of them lit a cigarette inside the room of the lodge near Tiruverkadu, Raju alias Raja of Perungudi, a car driver, suffered 85 per cent burns and succumbed on Monday afternoon. His friend Vignesh of Mogappair, a milk vendor, who sustained 40 per cent burns, is undergoing treatment at Government Kilpauk Medical College hospital.

The three others – Masi alias Rajesh, Mohammed Razaq and Raji alias Gnanavelraja - escaped unhurt as they had stepped outside to buy cigarettes. The incident happened on Thursday night at a lodge at Manthope Colony in Ayanambakkam, where the friends hailing from different parts of the city hired a room to make the drug.

After the preliminary inquiry, police said that the gang mixed the ganja leaves with spirit and another chemical, and boiled it using an induction stove that they had brought along. “They said a gel would form at the boiling point. It can be applied on the cigarettes and smoked to get high,” said the police.

Raja and Vignesh was in the room monitoring the process when the others stepped out to buy cigarettes. “When the room was filled with the vapour from the stove, one of them lit a lighter triggering the fire,” said the police.

Hearing their cries, the lodge staff rushed to their rescue and put out the fire. Later, the gang called an ambulance which took the duo to hospital.

As Nolambur and Tiruverkadu police had jurisdictional issues, the incident did not come to light for the past four days. It took instructions from the senior officers for the Nolambur police to register a case and detain the three men for inquiry. However, as the lodge falls under the jurisdiction of the Tiruverkadu police, the case is likely to be transferred to them. It is not clear where they sourced the ganja and spirit from.