Senior Inspector of the Dadar police station, Uday Shinde, has condoned a drug peddler found in possession of five packets of ganja and let let him off the hook with a strict warning, saying that ``using ganja is like practising ayurveda.''

The law, on the other hand, requires police to immediately arrest persons in possession of drugs under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act for the offence which is non-bailable and attracts a minimum sentence of 10 years if the offender is convicted. And, with as little as two grammes sufficient for arrest, Ramu Shirsat (40), was more than lucky to get away.

Shirsat, who sold ganja from a shanty on the pavement of Gopal Krishna Gokhale Road (south), was hauled to the police station on Thursday night following a complaint by CynthiaSequiera, proprietor of Canara Pinto Travels. The peddler had disabled the brakes of one of her buses which ferries school children, to avenge her drivers' threats to report him to the police.

The peddler's shanty, located just outside a civic school, was the cynosure of the drivers' ire as Shirsat frequently quarrelled with them for `obstructing his business'. The buses, parked along the pavement in front of his canopy at night, used to block his shanty from view, which meant he could not see approaching policemen on the beat. It also hid his shanty from prospective customers.

On the night of August 19, Shirsat quarrelled bitterly with one of the drivers, threatening to ``fix the problem'' permanently. He snapped the brake cables of one of the buses (MH-01-H-5193). Had the sabotage gone unnoticed, the lives of about 50 school children of Convent Girls High school, Prabhadevi, would have been in peril.

The driver reported the matter to Sequiera, who complained to the Dadar police. Inspector PrakashBhosale picked up Shirsat along with his belongings and took him to the station – out of his suitcases tumbled five packets of ganja. Shirsat told the police he had purchased the packets at Rs 10 each from a certain Suresh at Tulsi Pipe Road. He said he charged customers Rs 2 per puff on his chillum, besides being a user himself.

Despite the damning evidence, Senior Inspector Uday Shinde did not register a case. Instead, he instructed duty officer PSI Bhau Pilkar to let Shirsat go with a ``strict warning''. As for the complaint pertaining to sabotaging the brakes, police were only willing to register a non-cognizable offence (NC-3637/98), which does not empower them to arrest an offender. The Station House Diary made no mention of the narcotics seizure, which for all practical purposes, had vanished in a puff of smoke.

The next morning, the only reminder of the shady goings-on under the canopy at the school's compound wall was a grubby picture of Sai Baba. The peddler had vanished without atrace.

Sequiera told Express Newsline that Shirsat had been creating trouble since his arrival a few months ago. ``He used to sell ganja right outside the BMC school and fight with our bus drivers at night. He had a tiff with one of the drivers a couple of months ago as well.

But this time, he dared to snap the break wires, which prompted me to complain to the police. Had the police not taken any action, I was planning to ask the drivers to beat and whisk him away,'' she said. But, `action', in Shinde's book, meant issuing a `strict warning'. He told Express Newsline that carrying a small amount of ganja is not a serious matter. ``Four or five small packets of ganja do not amount to a case under the NDPS Act... So I let him go. Frankly, consuming ganja is like practicing ayurveda,'' he said.