Kochi’s dark side of drug pushing and extreme abuse is a hot topic of discussion. Growing drug abuse on campuses is directly related to the party culture, changes in parent-child relationship and unbridled freedom being given to the youth, says VR JAYARAJ
Beneath the façade of the most happening city in the South, Kochi, described as the Queen of Arabian Sea in tourism brochures, is a den of sin where quotation gangs, flesh traders, land mafias, drug peddlers and potters flourish. Particular among these social and legal evils is a drug situation which has already gripped the city’s college campuses, where youth is forced to live a life in hallucination instead of finding sublimation through creative activities. It is growing very fast, threatening to slip into something akin to the hippie sub-culture prevalent of the mid-1960s and early 1970s.
“The hippie culture, in some ways, was a defiant response to the society. That way you could find some positive elements in it if you wished. But what we now see is a phenomenon which is totally removed and dissociated from the society. What we now see is an avatar of senseless consumerism,” Ajay Kumar, a sociology researcher says.
Drugs have never been alien to Kochi. Ask Anees Mehmood (name changed) of Mattanchery who used to run a drug peddling business between Idukki and lodge rooms of Fort Kochi, the heritage zone of the city where tourists from all over the world seeking solace from the mundane took shelter. The Idukki mountains is known for the best variety of cannabis in the whole world. “There were all kinds of stuffs, from gold (cannabis) to hashish, heroin, ecstasy, etc and pills like mandrax (methaqualone) and hypnotex (nitrazepam). There were customers for all these always. But there is huge difference between the customers of those days and the consumers today. I have always felt that those who used drugs in our time were responsible persons and that they had taken shelter in the smoke and bubbles because they were in sociological despair. But these days, I see children just taking drugs for the sake of doing it as though they are hit by the fever of drug consumerism,” Anees tells you.
According to a retired top cop of Kochi who does not want to be named, loads of narcotic substances arrives in the city on a particular date. It is virtually impossible for the law enforcement to catch these people because of logistical reasons. Unless there are specific tip, it is not possible to track it either.
“It is easier to catch gold smugglers because the metal is heavy and most often this is done by amateurs. But peddling drugs is different. It is done usually by experts who take extra care to eliminate the possibility of leaks. Usually three modes of transportation — road, rail and sea are used. The consignments are small and therefore, it is easy for it to enter the city,” he tells you. The fact that these drugs make their way safely into havens of the elite makes it all the more difficult to track.
Experts say that the reason for Kochi fast becoming a drug city is directly linked to globalisation and the fast paced changes in cyber communication. The police is aware that the Kochi drug scene is part of a nexus whose tentacles can be linked to not just Bangalore pubs, Goa beaches or Mumbai but to cities of West Asia, Horn of Africa and even Central America. Cocaine, one is told is nothing like ganja which comes from Idukki, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal or Assam. Cocaine comes from the cocoa gardens of Central America and travels only through meticulously designed routes. That it has been reaching Kochi proves that an elaborate and foolproof network already exists. Cracking it is going to be a tough job for the cops. However, more worrying is that nobody knows how much of it is already in the city.
According to the city police, actor Shine Tom Chacko (31) and the four young women — designer Reshma Rangaswamy (26), Bangalore-based assistant film director Blessy Sylvester (22), fashion model Tinsy Babu (25) and travel firm owner Sneha Babu (25) who were arrested on the night of January 31, 2015 were high on cocaine. The luxury apartment was owned by Nisham whose drug cartel connections are now under the scanner. The police have learnt that the apartment was a regular venue of the so-called smokers’ parties, in which men and women from rich families smoked, inhaled, swallowed or injected drugs. What happens at such parties is anybody’s guess. According to the police, a good number of visitors to the smoking flat were young actors, a fact that still has to have some evidence.
But it can’t be ruled out that the flat was used as a smoker’s paradise. Of the four women arrested recently, Blessy and Reshma told the police that they had bought cocaine from a foreigner, Franco while vacationing in Goa during new year. They had brought 100 gm from the man and sold it in Kochi. But when the police raided their flat only 10 gm was found. “We are convinced that Blessy is indeed an important link in Kerala’s, if not south India’s drug chain. But the problem is that it is impossible to pin point the origin because the network is so intricate and vast,” a top police official who is investigating the case tells you.
The State Home Minister Chennithala has said that the drug network operating in the State is deeply entrenched. The police had received clear information that mafias with national and global reach had been behind this, he said, adding, “But the Government is determined to destroy these lobbies. Drug peddler will be dealt with strongly,” the Minister had said last week.
The Kerala Police which is doing its best to join the dots took the two women to Goa to search for the person from whom they had bought the drugs. Nothing much came out from this since the police is in a hurry to close the case has given out several links related to the investigation. The news that a team of cops would be visiting Goa in search for a person named Franco also made its way into the newspapers. The result was for all to see. There was no person by that name, nor is he likely to be found with the media covering each and every aspect of the case.
So while the city cops came back empty handed, the Thrissur cops on February 12, arrested Sai Nainesh, with 350 gm of cannabis who the police tell you is a vital link in the Kerala-Bangalore-Goa drug triangle. The information that he gave the cops has proved that Blessy is the link between Bangalore and Goa and that that she was his cousin, Vivek’s girlfriend. Vivek, one is told, is the drug lord with operational base in Bangalore and Goa. At one point, he used to give Blessy drugs to sell at campuses and among the elite of Kerala. Cops say that Blessy is just a small time peddler and it is unlikely that she knows the network. Only Vivek knew the real players and though his whereabouts are unknown, some say that he is hiding in Yemen. Vivek, is also wanted by the Karnataka Police in connection with a murder.
Meanwhile, what is puzzling the police is Nisham’s connection in this entire scenario. Blessy and Reshma in their confession told the cops that they had rented the Kochi flat from Nisham, who is based in Thrissur, but he has rejected this claim made by the two girls.
Nisham, one is told, has high connections and even though he has 12 cases against him — manhandling, rape, allowing his nine-year-old son to drive a Ferrari which gave him the nickname Ferrari dad, locking up a woman police officer in his Rolls Royce for demanding papers — he has managed to evade arrest so far. His tastes are expensive, he has a Rolls, a Ferrari, a lamborghini, a Bentley, a Hummer to name a few cars. A report said that he has a pair of shoes worth Rs5 lakh. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Intelligence Bureau have reportedly put his earnings at approximately Rs5,000 crore.
One is told that he has made his money from a beedi business. He is the man behind Thirunalveli-based Kings Beedi Company, and has tobacco farms in Tamil Nadu. The produce is sold to various other tobacco companies. Also, he has jewellery and a real estate business. But the cops and the ED officials have a different view and say that he has made money selling drugs. In fact, they opine that he was the kingpin of a drug racket that introduced cocaine in Kerala.
His neighbours in Muttichoor refuse to speak about Nisham. All they say is that there was a time when he would spend his time riding his blunt-black Rajdoot that was decorated with a plastic human skeleton at break-neck speed and scare the villagers. The villagers were not happy with his behaviour and the reason not to say a word against him is obvious — fear.
That he had a sadistic trait can be gauged from the manner in which he murdered the security guard, Chandrabose who was late by a few seconds in opening the gates of the villa complex for him. First, Nisham beat him up and then rammed his Hummer into him several times. If this was not enough he then dragged the almost unconscious guard into the parking lot and hit him with the iron rod. The post-mortem report said that there was not even a single internal organ in Chandrabose’s body that was not damaged.
“It is certain that a man, however criminal-minded he is, can’t act like this. Nisham would probably have been high on drugs when he killed that guard. But this doesn’t mean that he should escape punishment under the guise of a person of unsound mind. That is part of a plan to save him from getting a harsher punishment,” Rajeev Kumar, a rights worker says.
As for the raid that was conducted at his residence, Nisham has admitted to the police that he and Blessy knew each other from Bangalore days but denies having any knowledge of what was going on in his Kochi flat. “If he has anything to do with the drugs rackets, we will know of it soon,” the investigating cop says.
The case is still under investigation, but the cops tell you that many top-rated campuses in Kochi have already turned into hotbed of drug-pushers and abusers. Several raids in some of the hostels have been conducted and there is reliable information that there are smokers’ groups in Kaloor, Mattanchery, Kadavanthra, Thevara, Willingdon Island and Fort Kochi. The only reason why the police has not conducted raids here is because the people living in these areas have political connections.
“The spread of the party culture among the elite, the changes in parent-child relationship, the unbridled freedom and independence the youth are all by-products of the liberalisation and globalisation and are some of the reasons for the sudden spurt in drug-pushing and abuse in the State. In a city that is becoming cosmopolitan by the day, to where migration is becoming a problem and where the rich are growing richer, controlling entry of drugs is a task that is almost impossible to tackle,” a cop says.