Kerala: School security guard involved in ganja peddling; Excise Department to counsel students

The security guard employed in a public school at Kerala's Thangalam near the city of Kothamangalam was found to be involved in ganja peddling activities on the night of Saturday, October 30. Now the state's Excise Department will conduct a counselling session for students in the school.

The Excise of the Kothamangalam unit received a tip-off that the security guard Saju Biju was selling ganja to the students. The department then decided to hold a counselling session to find out if the children have been a target of Saju and his gang, as per a report by The New Indian Express.

The police arrested five people involved in the matter, who are the Vadatupara natives identified as Shafeeq, Asanth, Ashiq and Muneer and a Kuthukuzhy native identified as Harikrishnan. Meanwhile, three others accused, including Saju, Yasin alias Kochery of Nelikuzhy and a Thrikkariyoor native named Pradeep have absconded and police are searching for them.

"We have decided to hold a counselling session for all students to find out whether anyone became a target of the gang. It is revealed that Yasin is a known drug peddler in the area. His presence on the school premises is also a cause for concern. We have spoken to school authorities, and they agreed to cooperate with us," said Excise Assistant Commissioner B Tennymon.

Saju is a native of Pala. The Excise team launched a search following information received by preventive officer KA Niyas regarding his activities. The team recovered 140 grams of ganja from his security cabin and from Yasin's bike, as per The New Indian Express.

It was surprising for the Excise team that the CCTV cameras on the school premises and building turned out to be dysfunctional. "It is a reputed school in the Kothamangalam area. There are CCTV cameras in the school, but none of them were functional. If the cameras had worked, we could have checked whether Saju supplied ganja or other drugs to students," an Excise officer said.

Going by the quantity of ganja seized, the accused persons are likely to get bail, but the Excise officials have decided to produce them before the court as the contraband was seized from school premises. "Our cyber wing will trace the absconding persons. We also recovered plastic covers in which ganja was sold in small quantities," another officer from the department informed, as per TNIE.