He would have got away with the crime if not for his clients’ strange behaviour

The Mahadevapura police arrested a 46-year-old chaat vendor for selling marijuana on the sly to ‘trusted’ clients. The accused, Poorna Goku, came to Bengaluru from West Bengal to earn a living and started selling pani puri on the roadside, said the police.

He would have probably got away with his side business had it not been for his clients. Head constable Mohan Kumar and constable Ventakesh were patrolling on Friday morning when they saw a few people camped outside Goku’s cart at 8 a.m. — a rather unusual time for people to be indulging in pani puris. When they took a closer look, they realised that some of the customers were behaving strangely.

The police rounded them up and found that they were under the influence of drugs. “Initially, they claimed that they had come to eat chaat following which the police personnel pretended to leave the spot. They walked a short distance and hid themselves to watch what was happening,” said a police officer.

The personnel, who saw Goku supplying marijuana to the accused, immediately returned to the cart and arrested him. His customers, however, escaped.

The police seized 3.7 kg of marijuana from Goku, who confessed that he would smuggle the banned substance from his hometown once a month. “Goku said he earned more profit selling marijuana than pani puri to his customers, most of whom were employed in the private sector and IT companies in and around Mahadevapura,” said the officer.

The police suspect that Goku made a profit of ₹5,000 on weekdays and double on weekends.