Income tax returns quoting earnings of Rs 40 lakh a year led a 34-year-old drug peddler in Bengaluru into a police net. The Koramangala Police arrested the construction labourer-turned-drug peddler and his associate after the Income Tax Department grew suspicious about the IT returns Rachappa Ranga filed since 2015-’16, The Times of India reported on Tuesday.

Ranga came to Bengaluru from Chamarajanagar district in 2011. He worked as a construction labourer and tried to complete his studies at the same time – he was a Class 10 graduate then. Ranga got into peddling cannabis after someone from the city asked him to bring back “ganja” from his village, according to the Bangalore Mirror. Two years later, he quit his daily wage-earning job and got into the business of drugs full time. He also employed youngsters as agents.

The Income Tax Department sent him a notice after he filed I-T returns for the first time in 2015. His lawyer then got him a licence as a Class I civil contractor.

On January 20, the police arrested him and his associate – 47-year-old Srinivas – from his house in Koramangala. They also seized 28 kg of cannabis and Rs 5 lakh in cash from him. Investigators are on the lookout for a third associate.