Thiruvananthapuram: The group of men sprang to their feet as soon as they heard the information they had been waiting for. The five men followed their informant into the street and positioned themselves at strategic points around the Cumbum North police station.
At around 9.45 am, a man walked up to the street from a narrow alley. As soon as he neared the police station, the five men cornered him and bundled him into a jeep. The jeep sped away to the Kerala border, with about 20 motorbikes and auto rickshaws in hot pursuit. The chasers gave up as the jeep passed the border into Kerala.
A Kerala police team had just nabbed a kingpin of ganja trade in south India. The five men from the anti-goon squad formed by the Kottayam superintendent of police had spent hours in a lodge room in the Tamil Nadu town in wait to capture the smuggler. Last week’s operation followed weeks of intelligence gathering, planning and earlier botched attempt.
The cops from Kottayam were led to ‘Thalaivar’ Rasangam when they nabbed ganja peddlers and users in the town. Interrogations led them through a network that eventually ended in Rasangam. Cumbum was a hub of the illegal ganja trade, supplying to day-trippers from across Kerala including Kottayam.
The cops on recce found that the Cumbum bus stand was a den of ganja suppliers. They were active as early as 4 am. Agents accosted any stranger with an offer to sell ganja. The police eventually zeroed in on Rasangam, the 45-year-old leader of a racket which has leased hundreds of acres of ganja fields in Andhra and Odisha and supplied the contraband across south India.
Rasangam was a big fish though. It was not easy to reach him. He was accessible only to big customers and loyalists.
The gang transported ganja from Andhra and Odisha on trains to Madurai, from where the packets were loaded on to trucks towards Cumbum. The contraband was stored in the houses in the colony bang opposite the police station. Most of the houses had underground bunkers to stow away the ganja packs. The local policemen turned a blind eye to the thriving illegal trade. Every house had watchdogs and groups of criminals for protection.
The Kerala police had a brush with Rasangam as early as February. They managed to catch him off guard but as soon as they dragged him to the jeep the local residents surrounded them. The police jeep was shattered and an officer was left with a head injury. The assailants robbed the policemen of their wallets and mobile phones. The local police disbursed the mob but they were not effective in pursuing the case.
The second team from Kottayam had learned from the mistakes of their predecessors. They rented a room close to the Tamil Nadu border and monitored the Cumbum bus stand and surroundings at day time. Rasangam had gone to jail in the meantime. As soon as he got out on bail, the officers went to Cumbum and rented a room close to the police station.
It was not easy to venture into the colony, Rasangam’s den. The women stayed put in the houses while men went for work. They would raise hell the moment they sensed something amiss. Almost all houses had watchdogs. Strangers could not get inside the colony. So the policemen waited for Rasangam to get out of the colony.
On the third day, Rasangam did make an appearance, without anyone to protect him. Perhaps he was confident because his men had successfully foiled a bid to arrest him just the previous month. He had underestimated the Kerala police.
He was on his way to the police station to sign the register as demanded by the bail condition when the cops jumped on him.
Rasangam and his men had been making huge profits on the ganja trade. They procured ganja for Rs 500 per kilo from Andhra and Odisha and sold it to middlemen for Rs 6,000. Rasangam had built a two-storey house at Vadakkupetty. His companion, Singaraj from Uthamapuram, was nabbed from Kottayam a week earlier.
The police said that the ganja peddling in Kottayam has waned after the arrest of the duo. They have been remanded. The probe was led by superintendent of police Harishankar and deputy superintendent of police R Sreekumar.
