Three youths engaged in tennis-ball cricket near the security wall of the Kalamba jail in Maharashtra's Kolhapur district on Tuesday seemed pretty much harmless to any passerby. Upon inquiring, they told the policemen that they were from Pune. The Police on duty got suspicious about their presence in the sensitive and prohibited area, the official from Juna Rajwada police station in Kolhapur said. The police seized three tennis balls with insulated adhesive tape over it from their possession, he said.
"On cutting open, marijuana was found inside the balls," the official said, adding that the three men were allegedly planning to lob the contraband-filled balls in the jail for one of their associates lodged there. The three were arrested and booked under relevant sections of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, he said.
The jail administration was informed to check if the accused had already supplied anything inside the jail. "During the inspection, the jail administration found a mobile phone inside the prison and they were trying to verify to whom it belongs," the official said.