Arrest of special educators in drug trafficking case: Kerala Police initiate property forfeiture proceedings
The Kozhikode Rural police have initiated proceedings to seize and forfeit properties allegedly acquired through proceeds of drug trafficking by the five recently arrested suspects
The Kozhikode Rural police have initiated proceedings to seize and forfeit properties allegedly acquired through proceeds of drug trafficking by the five recently arrested suspects, including three special educators, in the Perambra synthetic drug case. The move has been initiated under Section 68F (Seizure or freezing of illegally acquired property) of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985, as investigators intensify efforts to dismantle the financial backbone of the network. Police sources said the forfeiture proposal would be submitted to the Chennai-based Appellate Tribunal under the Smugglers and Foreign Exchange Manipulators (Forfeiture of Property) Act after the completion of the legal procedures. They said the action was aimed at depriving the accused of assets allegedly amassed through illicit trafficking and disrupting the financial incentives sustaining organised drug networks.
The property forfeiture proceedings come as the newly constituted Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Kozhikode rural police expands its probe into the financial intermediaries linked to a multi-State synthetic drug syndicate. Investigators are now tracking the money trail after digital evidence reportedly pointed to a wider network of local facilitators who allegedly handled secret financial transactions for the drug racket. Responding to the concerns of some parents that the students from various rural schools should be given counselling to expose the suspected incidents of drug abuse, senior police officers said they were yet to get any evidence against the suspected teachers about the concern. However, they confirmed that a few more teachers, who were frequently in touch with the accused ones, would be quizzed to make headway in the probe.
“Also, we have examined the details of a few foreign trips made by one of the accused teachers and the get-togethers they hosted in the name of various training sessions. Their police custody will be sought to continue with the interrogation,” said a police officer with the Special Investigation Team. He said the case was now under the direct supervision of Deputy Inspector General of Police K. Karthik (Kannur Range) and District Police Chief (Kozhikode rural) Merin Joseph. K.C. Keerthana, K. Kavya and V.P. Neeshma were the three special educators recently arrested for allegedly functioning as financial intermediaries for inter-State drug traffickers. Their role was uncovered following the arrest of Safwan, the first accused in the case from Vadakara.
The BriefWire