City’s nightlife, along with educational institutes and hostels, is under scrutiny as pubs, lounges, and now colleges are reportedly becoming hubs for Mephedrone (MD) smuggling. Traffickers are embedding associates among partygoers to distribute the drug, and recent investigations have exposed a troubling connection between local police and these smuggling networks, facilitating daily MD sales worth lakhs of rupees.
The arrest of notorious drug peddler Pankaj Sathawane, who evaded capture for three years, has revealed the deep entrenchment of MD trade in the city’s social scene. Pankaj disclosed that most of Nagpur’s pubs and lounges are key sites for MD use, with transactions often conducted discreetly in bathrooms. His associate, Suraj Gajbhiye, was also arrested with MD worth ₹11 lakh, further underscoring the extensive reach of this network.
Alarmingly, educational institutions and hostels are also emerging as new targets for MD sales, particularly in areas like Wathoda, where non-local students are reportedly falling prey to addiction. The situation is so severe that parents are withdrawing their children from affected institutions, prompting calls for urgent action to combat this growing menace in Nagpur.