Father, enraged over family quarrel, plants ganja in son's shop, Excise begin probe

Kalpetta: A father's bitterness for his son following a family quarrel took an outrageous turn in Wayanad, and he schemed a plot to plant ganja in his son's shop. It nearly worked, but the Excise officials sensed something was amiss and have arrested one of the accused in the case.

Kollasseriyil Jinse Varghese, 38, a native of Payyampalli, an autorickshaw driver in Mananthavadi town, has been arrested in connection with the case.

It was on Friday that Mananthavadi excise circle inspector Sujith Chandran received a tip-off that a large quantity of ganja had been hidden at a banana trading shop. Acting on the information the excise department personnel conducted a raid in the shop and seized more than 2 kilograms of ganja. The owner of the shop P A Noufal was arrested. But during the interrogation, Noufal repeated that he was innocent and that the packet of ganja might have been placed by someone who had a grudge against him when he was away for midday prayer in the mosque. A primary investigation also confirmed that the man had an unblemished past.

Realizing their fault, excise officials released Noufal and also started a re-investigation of the case, focusing on CCTV cameras of Noufal’s shop and also in the neighboring shops. In the visuals of his shop, one person was seen coming to the shop by noon with a packet and hiding it under the table when Noufal was away.

The focus turned to the man who visited the shop and identified him as a Karnataka native. Other CCTV visuals also showed that the man came in an autorickshaw and returned in the same. The probe team zeroed in on Jins, an autorickshaw driver and took him into custody.

Though he had denied any role at the initial stage of interrogation, later when shown the CCTV visuals he admitted that it was Puthanathara Veettil Abubacker, father of Noufal and his friend Abdullah alias Outha who had persuaded him to do the crime offering money, according to excise officials. Jins had confessed that he had no direct link with the labourer who placed the packet in the shop. He had merely acted on the direction of Abubacker .

However, the investigation officials believe that Jins had an active role to play in the fraud. The ganja was sourced through a labourer of Abubacker, a native of Antharasanthe, near Nagarholle, Karnataka. The three accused are absconding.

Mananthavadi Excise Circle Inspector Sujith Chandran said that though Jins had denied any role in the crime at the initial stage of interrogation, later, when he was shown the CCTV visuals he had to accept his role. “ Moreover, our probe team had also collected the Call Data Record of the mobile phone calls of Jins which proved that it was from his mobile phone the excise staff received the secret tip of the ganja hidden in the shop,” Sujith Chandran said.

He was produced at the Additional Sessions Court, Kalpetta, Jins was remanded in judicial custody on Wednesday.