Kochi: Kalamassery Police on Wednesday nabbed two West Bengal natives in connection with the ganja seizure from the men’s hostel of the Government Polytechnic College here. According to police, the two are key members of a drug racket involved in distributing cannabis to students in Kerala. 

Manorama News reported that the two drug peddlers, who are in police custody, distributed ganja to the students of the Kalamassery college for Holi celebrations. Police said the Bengal natives source the narcotic substance from their state as per their customers' demand and bring it to Kerala in train.

Midnight raid and arrest of six
Police raided the men’s hostel of the government college on March 13 on a tip-off from the principal on suspected drug abuse among students. During the raid, police seized around 2 kg of ganja from the hostel and arrested three students. 

Two of them were released on station bail, while another student, Akash M, 21, a native of Kulathupuzha in Kollam, was arrested and remanded to judicial custody on Friday. The police recovered 1.909 kg of ganja from his room. Police seized 9.7 gm of cannabis from the two students --Adithyan, 20, of Haripad in Alappuzha, and Abhiraj R, 21, a native of Karunagappally of Kollam-- officers said.

The college authorities have suspended all three students and ordered an internal inquiry into the incident. After intensifying the probe into the narcotics case, the Kalamassery police arrested Aashique and Shalik - two former students of the college who allegedly supplied a large quantity of ganja to Akash, a final-year student of the college.

On March 16, the probe team apprehended Anuraj R (21), the key accused in the ganja case. The third-year mechanical engineering student allegedly organised a large-scale fund collection on campus for the Holi celebration and used the money to procure ganja. He handed over the funds to former students Ashiq and Shalik, who are currently in judicial custody in connection with the case, and facilitated ganja delivery to the campus.