Two held in connection with ‘ganja’ seizure at Kochi hostel

The Kochi City police on Wednesday arrested two migrants in the case registered in connection with the seizure of 1.90 kilograms of suspected ganja from a room at the hostel of the Government Polytechnic College, Kalamassery, last week.

The arrested are Sohail Shaik 24, and Aehinta Mandal, 26, residents of Murshidabad in West Bengal. They allegedly supplied the suspected ganja seized from the hostel. They were nabbed from Muvattupuzha after the police rummaged through call data records and launched a hunt centred around potential hideouts dominated by migrants. They had reportedly fled Aluva where they used to live after the police inquired about them there following the raid.

The police initially zeroed in on them based on the statements of two former students — K.S. Shalik and Mohammed Aashiq — who were arrested in connection with the case. The two migrants used to do casual work at construction sites and lived near Shalik’s house in Aluva.

Shalik and Aashiq allegedly used to source ganja from the duo and smuggled it into the college campus. A probe is also on to verify whether the two former students used to supply ganja elsewhere, including on other campuses.

According to the police, Shalik used to contact Sohail for ganja, while the money was transferred to the bank account of Aehinta by UPI wallet. The police said the arrested confessed to receiving the payment when confronted with the bank account trail. Apart from that, they reportedly did not cooperate with the interrogation or divulge the source of the suspected ganja until they were produced in court and remanded later on Wednesday, the police said. The police are set to seek their custody for further interrogation.

So far, the police have arrested eight persons in two cases registered in connection with the seizure. The two accused in the case registered over the seizure of 9.70 grams of ganja — R. Abhiraj and Adithyan — alone have been released on bail. The six arrested in connection with the seizure of 1.90 kilograms from the room of Akshay, a student, remain remanded in judicial custody.