New Delhi, July 27 (IANS): To support a lavish lifestyle, a 46-year-old engineer laid off by his firm in Gurgaon last year took to drug peddling, police said Saturday. The man worked with a gang which included women who posed as his wife.

The gang operated for a year before being arrested, police said.

Deepak Kumar Tijori, who hails from Patna, holds a diploma in electric engineering. The private company he worked at in Gurgaon, Haryana, adjoining Delhi, terminated his services last year, on account of recession.

Accustomed to wealth and comfort, the 46-year-old took to peddling drugs to earn money.

Police said Tijori would get fine-quality ganja from a village in Orissa and travel only in first class coaches of trains. He would hire women to pretend to be his wife, to ward off suspicion.

On July 24, acting on a tip off from the Mahipalpur area of south Delhi, police arrested him and recovered over 100 kg of ganja from his possession. The substance was meant for a client.

Tijori had been living in Delhi for 12 years.