Representational imageA majority of active criminals operating out of Kannur, including those who figure in the 'goons list' prepared by the district police, have close links in local politics.
They impress their masters by getting actively involved in local political clashes first. After earning the trust of the leaders, these goons would start showing their true colors. They would offer ‘help’ to real estate groups to clinch deals and settle scores between builders and developers by giving them the impression that they are acting on behalf of local leaders.
Their approach makes the parties involved believe that they act as the middlemen of local politicians. It helps these goons to dictate terms to the gullible people and extort money from them at will.
Read Part - I: Who’s afraid of a hired goon? Political masters for sure
Often, these gangs are being hired by politicians to eliminate their political, personal, and business adversaries. Some of the Kannur-based quotation gangs patronized by political parties have spread their tentacles of terror even outside the state.
It was from Bengaluru where Jithin Das, an accused in several criminal cases, was arrested under the provisions of the Goonda Act by a team led by the Kannur district police chief.
According to the police, he had been offering ‘quotation’ service to some top businessmen in the city ever since he went into hiding. But his arrest irked the political masters as the entire team including the CI, who were part of the squad which nabbed him, were transferred immediately.
Read Part - II: Where reel and real violence face each other
When T.V.C. Nandakumar, an accused in the murder of the Payyannur-based BJP activist C.K. Ramachandran, was included in the goonda list after being detained under the Kerala Anti-Social Activities Prevention Act (KAPA), the CPM protested against the move by staging a dharna in front of the Payyannur police station.
The next CPM state committee meeting took strong exception to the actions of its Kannur leaders, stating that such an agitation when the Home portfolio is handled by the party was unacceptable.
Karnataka is the main area of operation of some of the politically-backed quotation mafias based in Kannur. Criminals like Aswanth, Shamil, and Shinoj, who were accused of robbing two diamond merchants from Karnataka of Rs 66 lakh and Rs 80 lakh, had been convicted in a number of cases of political violence in the past.
Read Part - III: From real estate deals to drug peddling: how quotation gangs strike it rich
It is alleged that there were BJP sympathizers among those booked for several criminal offenses recently. The cases against them included the abduction of a Karnataka-based political leader’s brother, robbing of a hawala money carrier of about Rs 1 crore, and looting of around Rs 1.5 crore from a doctor in Thalassery.
Although Kodi Suni and the other members of the gang are serving the jail term for murdering Revolutionary Marxist Party leader T.P. Chandrasekharan, top politicians never fail to attend important functions at their homes.
According to rumors doing the rounds locally, one of the gang members received as many as 19 refrigerators as a gift from VIPs who attended the housewarming ceremony conducted by his family recently. It is said that most of them were presented by party’s local committees in the region.
Intermediary gets beaten up
A Koothuparamba-based goon owing allegiance to the CPM traveled all the way to Dubai to act as an intermediary to resolve a dispute between two groups in Panoor and Kasaragod. He went there on behalf of the Panoor-based businessmen, but his intentions were misunderstood by the rival group and were beaten black and blue by them. The ‘intermediary’ returned home after a two-week-long stay in a Dubai hospital.
The politics-mafia connection runs deep in Palakkad too. Whenever LDF comes to power, a criminal hailing from Malampuzha, who is an accused in several cases, starts flexing his muscles, local people say. During the UDF rule, the police had tried to arrest this goon, but he took on them with a sword and escaped when the police fired in the air to stop him. The incident had triggered widespread criticism from the public.
Later, the CPM took up the issue, launching district-wide protest marches and anti-police campaigns, accusing the cops of harassing the criminal and his family.
The same goon had threatened another sub-inspector using the same trick when the latter attempted to nab him. Though the SI somehow managed to take him into custody, he was ‘rewarded’ with a transfer to a low-profile post in a special unit for that act of bravery.
Recently, a party-sponsored youth from Malampuzha, who is specialized in street fights, barged into the Armed Reserve Camp in Kallekkad and threatened a police officer’s brother. But no case was charged against him.
A couple of years ago, an RSS activist was murdered in broad daylight near Kanchikode. He was hacked to death by a gang while traveling in a bus. But the main accused in the case is still absconding. It is learned that he is currently working as a headload worker at a market near the Kasaba police station in Pudussery. It is an open secret that the accused was offered a trade union membership by local CPM leaders after he was arraigned in the murder case.
Anti-goonda squads
Thrissur was the first district in the state to form an anti-goonda squad way back in 2004. The district had turned into a hub of goons much before that; almost a decade ago. During that period, goons were hired to settle personal and political scores. With the passage of time, these criminal gangs started getting directly involved in real estate market, hawala transactions and high-value business deals.
Politicians of all hues patronize goons
Recently, the unceremonious transfer of a circle inspector in Kottayam raised a set of serious questions. The charge against the official was that he arrested a quotation gang in connection with a murder case! A person who was held in preventive detention under KAPA by the Kottayam police was a member of the group. The incident took place towards the fag end of the tenure of the previous UDF government. Sources revealed that a prominent leader of one of the UDF constituents pulled the strings to ensure that the official was transferred.
A few months after the LDF government took over, the same accused was arrested. This time it was a youth leader of the ruling party who pitched in to put his weight behind the criminal.
It is a known fact that leaders of students’ and youth organizations, regardless of their political affiliations, seek the help of local goons to get their ‘works’ done. When they bring in local goons to settle scores with each other, it only contributes to further escalation of petty conflicts.
Goonda Act loses steam
The Kerala Anti-Social Activities (Prevention) Ordinance, 2007, known as the Goonda Act, was initially enforced with much vigor but lost steam eventually. Under the law, district police chiefs are required to prepare a list of ‘known rowdies’ and submit it to the district collector. But in most cases, orders for detention, under which a goon be held for a period of six months, are never issued.
After December 2015, not a single criminal was arrested in Kollam district under the Act. The district police chief had submitted a list of 28 goondas to the collector who is vested with the power to order detention under the Act. None of the collectors who held the post during that period bothered to issue detention orders. It is alleged that the civil servants were acting on oral instructions of political bosses to refrain from ‘unnecessary harassment’ of goons!
The house of Aakkavila Satheesh, who contested the last assembly elections on a BDJS ticket from the Eravipuram seat in Kollam district, came under attack during the campaign period. Investigations revealed that the attack was carried out by a local thug contracted by CPM leaders. He was a habitual offender whose name figure in the ‘goonda list’ prepared by the district police.
The police tried to arrest him more than once but to no avail. Finally, it was revealed that a police official attached to the Commissioner’s special squad was leaking information to him about possible police actions.
Once he was caught red-handed by the commissioner, but the local MLA, who is said to be the godfather of the notorious criminal, intervened in the issue. Eventually, the erring police official was transferred to the Eravipuram station to the surprise of his colleagues. It was the same station where many cases had been registered against the habitual offender! Now both of them work hand in glove with each other, it is learned.
Until and unless our political parties sever ties with quotation gangs and stop patronizing them, these dreaded criminals will continue to thrive, spreading terror in ‘Gods’ Own Country’.
