Kannur man wanted in six drug cases & presumed dead, arrested after 13 years in AP's ganja hub

Kannur: A suspected cannabis trafficker, wanted in six narcotics cases and presumed dead by police, was arrested from a hill station near the Andhra Pradesh-Odisha border, 13 years after he jumped bail.

K T Jose (56) was traced as part of the Kannur City Police's renewed hunt for absconders under Operation Toofan, the state government's anti-narcotics drive.

A native of Mattini in Iritty, Jose had assumed the name Kora Josh Babu, married a Telugu woman with whom he has a son, became fluent in Telugu and was running a poultry farm when Kannur police came knocking at his door.

The location from where he was arrested—Chintapalle in Andhra Pradesh's Alluri Sitharama Raju district, has led police to suspect that he may still be involved in drug trafficking.

Alluri Sitharama Raju district is one of India's major ganja hubs. "There's only one highway towards Paderu. That is where ganja is packed into boxes and supplied to other states. Chintapalle comes under the Paderu subdivision," said Kannur City Police Commissioner B V Vijaya Bharath Reddy. "Otherwise, why would he live in that hotspot of ganja distribution?" said Reddy.

Jose had been declared a proclaimed offender by the court in six cases registered at various police stations in the state. Warrants are pending against him in drug trafficking cases registered at Kannur Town, Thalassery, Iritty, Ulikkal and Palakkad South police stations.

Jose, who has a wife in Iritty, never contacted his family after jumping bail. He did not turn up even when his mother and brother died. Police later got information that he was dead.

When Operation Toofan was launched, Reddy set up a special investigation team to track proclaimed offenders wanted in drug trafficking cases, and Jose's file came up. There was little information about him.

In 2012, Iritty police had seized 8 kg of cannabis from the house where Jose was staying at Mattini. He was arrested and later released on bail, after which he disappeared. The SIT examined Jose's old workplaces, friends and acquaintances. The investigation found that he had spent time hiding in Wayanad, Palakkad and Thiruvananthapuram.

When the SIT almost hit a dead end, the police found he had made a financial transaction 10 years ago. "He had transferred some money to someone," said Reddy. That gave the SIT a thread to pull. The team analysed several bank records and the trail led them to Chintapalle, a hill station in Paderu, long associated with cannabis cultivation and trafficking. After nearly two months of investigation, four Kannur City Police officers travelled to Chintapalle and arrested Jose. Police also traced his new phone number.

Apart from the location, police said, his number had been saved by several people as 'Ganja Josh', bolstering their suspicion that he may still be involved in the illegal trade.

The SIT included Narcotics Cell ACP V V Manoj, Kannur ACP M P Azad, Sub-Inspectors Vinod and Shaji, ASIs Rajeevan, Sneheesh, Sajith and Levan, and civil police officers Naser, Anoop and Shamseer Ahmed.