‘Ganja beedi’ leads to operation in Maoist zone in Kerala

KOCHI:  Every other day, Kerala sees mega ganja busts. In most cases, those who land in the police net are conduits or peddlers. The ‘suppliers’ usually remain off radar. Last month, however, a four-member police team led by Thadiyittaparambu Station House Officer (SHO) Kerson V M went after the big fish. They headed to the Naxal-infested forests of Rayagada district in Odisha to hunt down two ganja cultivators. 

It all started when a man was arrested with “a ganja beedi” in March. A probe led to the arrest of a Kizhakkamablam native named Cheriyan Joseph from whose house officers seized 2.8 kg of ganja. Subsequently, more arrests and seizures followed – 70.4 kgs from Vazhakulam and 250kg from Kurrupampady, both in Ernakulam district. 

Interrogation revealed that two conduits Kabeer and Najeeb  had procured 160 kg of ganja from Odisha. Of this, around 80 kg was unloaded at Pollachi, and the rest was stored in Kalamassery in Kochi.  Next, officers tracked down a Tamil Nadu native, Selvam, who had operated the tanker lorry in which the ganja was smuggled from Odisha to Kerala. “On interrogating Selvam, and tracking bank transactions made by the accused persons in the case, we came to know that a Odisha native named Samson Gandha (34) was at the helm of the network,” says Kerson. 

“Samson had people working as his agents across Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Our senior officers wanted to nab the main suppliers, so we expanded the probe to Odisha.” However, the operation was not as easy as it sounds. In fact, before November, the police team from Thadiyittaparambu Police Station had reached Odisha twice to nab Samson Gandha and his aide Ismail Gandha (27). Both attempts went futile. 

“On earlier occasions, we reached Odisha after informing the local police,” says an officer who was part of the probe. “Following specific inputs on the duo, the third time, we decided to conduct the operation without informing the Odisha police. So, in the last week of November, a four-member, armed team led by the SHO (Kerson) hired a Maharashtra-registration SUV and embarked on a mission via Visakhapatnam. We were determined not to return home empty-handed this time.” 

As the team entered, officers tracked the duo with the assistance of the cyber cell. “They were in a remote village; we confirmed they were there. In a four-hour operation, Samson and Ismail were taken into custody from different locations in the village,” says the officer. 

“Though their relatives attempted to block our vehicle, we overcame the resistance and rushed the accused to the local police station, and from there to Kerala.” Kerson says all the accused persons in the case have been arrested. “This was a different experience for our team,” he adds. “They cultivated ganja in the deep forest. They mostly stayed at an interior hideout, 38 km away from their village. The area has Maoists presence, too. Even a slight mistake could have cost us our lives.”

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