An engineering student in Hyderabad died due to drug overdose, police said on Thursday.
The 23-year-old succumbed at a city hospital on March 23 but the case came to light on Thursday (March 31) after police arrested a drug peddler and three consumers.
This is believed to be the first such case in Hyderabad and this has been reported at a time when police has intensified the crackdown on drug peddlers and is also taking action against consumers.
The youth had become addicted to drugs and used to travel to Goa along with some others to take the drugs.
The youth was admitted to Nizam's Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) on March 19. He was behaving in a strange manner and initially the doctors could not identify the problem. Later, his friends informed the doctors that he was using LSD and cannabis. He was believed to be using a cocktail of drugs.
According to doctors, the youth's organs had stopped functioning normally. He died of a brain stroke caused due to drug overdose.
Chakravarthy Gummi, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Narcotic Enforcement Wing (H-NEW) said the youth's parents did not know the cause of death and they were in a state of shock.
The police arrested a drug peddler and three consumers. The deceased student used to visit Goa with them.
The police seized 6 LSD bottles, 10 ecstasy pills and 100 grams of hash oil from them.
The sleuths of H-NEW along with Nallakunta police made the arrests. They included Prem Upadhya who was visiting Goa frequently for procuring LSD blots and ecstasy pills and selling the same to customers in Hyderabad.
Police also arrested three customers aged between 26 and 27 - Ramakrishna, a software employee while Nikhil Joshua is a guitar teacher and Jeevan Reddy a B. Tech Student.
In another case, H-NEW along with Bowenpally police arrested two drug peddlers and two consumers. The police seized 25 grams of hash oil from them.
The police official said that in recent times several youth and students have become addicted to drugs and they are involved in crime and other anti-social activities. He appealed to the youth and students not to fall prey to drugs and requested the parents to keep a watch on the activities of their children and feel free to approach police or pass information to police to curtail such anti-social activities.