Student addicts on rise: Excise

KOLLAM: The recent combing operation and arrests by the Excise department has revealed the rampant use of Ganja and other intoxicants by school and college students in the district. In the latest arrest, an engineering student who worked as a drug peddler has been apprehended by the team and ganja confiscated from him. The use of ganja has also led to increased criminal activities among teenagers. Two teenagers who are ganja addicts were arrested for brutally assaulting a father and son in Kollam last week.

Akhil R. Krishnan (24), an engineering student in a private college here, was arrested by an Excise team from Karunagappally.  20 packets of ganja were seized from his possession. Akhil was arrested by the Excise team earlier too for the same crime, but escaped on bail as the quantity he handled was very less. In another arrest near a private university campus in Vallikkavu here, Michael (30) was arrested by an Excise team here and more than a kilogram of ganja was seized from him.  According to the Excise team, school and college going students are potential customers. As many as nine cases of drug peddling have been registered from the area in the past one month.

In addition to drug abuse, it has been observed that addicts get involved in criminal activities. A father(58) and his son (30) were allegedly hacked by a group of drug addicts at Mulluvila near Eravipuram last week. Babykkuttan and Dinesh, the father and son, had raised protests against the drug mafia that functioned locally and the attack was apparently in retaliation for this. The members of the gang, all below 20, broke into the house of Babykkuttan to attack the father and son. Both of them suffered critical injuries and are yet to recover at the Thiruvananthapuram MCH.