Mangaluru: Two undertrial prisoners returning from a court hearing in Mangaluru were caught attempting to smuggle suspected MDMA into the district prison by hiding it inside slippers. According to police, the incident took place on Tuesday, when undertrial prisoners Vikram Kumar and Pramod B attended a hearing at a court in Mangaluru under escort, and returned to the district prison around 2 pm.During a thorough check at the prison’s main gate, KSISF personnel Shekhar DK and Kumar NR noticed two suspicious yellow tape-wrapped packets hidden in the slippers worn by Vikram Kumar. On questioning, Vikram revealed that the slippers actually belonged to his fellow prisoner, Pramod, and that they exchanged footwear while returning to the prison.Pramod, when questioned, admitted that during the court hearing, in the premises’ toilet, he retrieved two packets from the bottom of a bucket where they were allegedly hidden by Manjunath from Davangere, who was also present in court for hearing. He said he placed the packets inside his slippers, and upon re-entering the prison gate, exchanged slippers with Vikram.Upon inspection, the packets were found to contain 10 small white crystalline packets, suspected to be MDMA. As both accused attempted to smuggle the suspected MDMA into prison, a case was registered against Vikram Kumar and Pramod B. Barke police are investigating.
