Rented apartment used as indoor farm to harvest Ganja; 4 held

CHENNAI: A software engineer was among the four persons arrested by a special team of the Chennai Police on Friday who found them to have cultivated and harvested Ganja plants inside an apartment in the city outskirts, using LED lamps to grow the plant indoors by watching Youtube videos.

The arrested persons were identified as Sakthivel, a techie, Shyam Sundar, Srikanth and Narendra Kumar. Police sources said that Shyam Sundar is employed with the railways. Police are investigating whether he is a contract staff or a railway employee.

A team of personnel from North Beach Police station were following the lead on the sales of Ganja in their jurisdiction, which led their trail to Madambakkam in Chennai outskirts.

According to a senior police officer, one of their personnel had posed as a client and approached a Ganja peddler who led them to the apartment.

Police found Sakthivel and the three others in the apartment and were surprised to find a whole set up inside one of the rooms to rear Ganja. Preliminary investigations revealed that they learnt to grow Ganja indoors by watching Youtube videos and used LED lights as a substitute for sunlight and grew the plant in an air-conditioned room.

Investigations revealed that Sakthivel had suffered losses by investing in crypto currency and took to Ganja selling to compensate the same.

Apart from Ganja, the quartet also sold narcotic stamps. Police have seized three kg of Ganja and LSD stamps from the house. All four of them were arrested and further investigations are on.