New Delhi: Four students of Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi University and Amity University have been arrested as part of a New Year's Eve crackdown on drug rackets.

The Narcotics Control Bureau, which conducted the three-day operation from December 28, said it had seized 1.14kg of charas (cannabis) and three LSD blot papers that were supposed to be supplied to the party circuit of students in and around Delhi University's north campus and other similar locations for New Year celebrations.

The Delhi zonal unit of the NCB arrested the four under provisions of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act.

Two are from Hindu College, affiliated to Delhi University, and one each from JNU and Amity University.

"Aniruddh Mathur, 22, Tenzin Phunchog, 23, and Sam Mallick, 21, are all abusers of charas and used to get it from Gaurav Kumar, 22. They have told us that drug abuse is rampant in the Delhi University campus area. They have given information about drug peddlers and others involved in the racket, which is being verified," NCB deputy director-general (north) S.K. Jha said.

Kumar, a BA economics (honours) student of Hindu College, was named as the kingpin of the racket by the NCB, which added that the charas was being allegedly sourced by the students from Himachal Pradesh. The NCB said the students were both addicts and suppliers of drugs.

Calling the operation one of the major crackdowns on drugs in Delhi colleges in the recent past, NCB director-general Rina Mitra said the agency was committed to check narcotics abuse by students as part of its larger mandate to eradicate the menace.

NCB officials said they had been tipped off that LSD blot papers were being couriered from Jaipur to Delhi, allegedly by Kumar with help from Mallick.

The interrogation of the four students revealed that Kumar was "into drug peddling in and around Delhi University's north campus.

"He procures the charas from a man, Neelchand, from Himachal Pradesh and sells them to students and others in the north campus area," an NCB source said.

The anti-narcotics agency said Kumar, along with Mathur and Phunchog, went to Himachal Pradesh on December 24 and put up in a home stay run by Neelchand. Neelchand, the agency said, is one of the kingpins of the drug-trafficking racket in Himachal.

While Phunchog is studying MSc (physics) at Hindu College, Mathur is an MBA student of hospitality management at Amity. Malick is pursuing MA (philosophy) from JNU. PTI