A ‘Murshidabad conundrum’ is staring Excise officials in the face after a surge in infiltration of drug peddlers from the border district of West Bengal among the large migrant workforce in Ernakulam.
In last one month alone, the excise enforcement picked up three persons hailing from the district separated from Bangladesh by the Brahmaputra. In fact, at least two to three such arrests are made in a month without fail.
Excise Deputy Commissioner P. Jayarajan told The Hindu that the issue has emerged as a major challenge to the force. “Most of them are actually Bangladeshis on fake Indian voter ID cards. So, those who are granted bail for holding small quantities of the contraband simply vanishes and we are left with no trail to track them back,” he said. There are 40-odd pending cases over the last few years where the accused have remained untraceable.
An officer who had once gone there to serve a warrant was stunned by what he saw. There was a cluster of makeshift wooden structures lining the river banks in a very remote area. There was not even a police station within 30 kilometres and the address he was searching, obviously, was non-existent.
Heroin, brown sugar, an adulterated form of heroin, and ganja have emerged as favourite drugs of these Murshidabad ‘residents’ who come here in the guise of migrant workers though in reality they are either drug peddlers or carriers.
“Drugs originated from Malaysia and brought to Murshidabad via Myanmar and Bangladesh is easily available to them at cheap rates. Stuff bought there for as little as Rs. 800 to Rs. 1,000 are sold in the district for as much as Rs. 20,000. In fact, a gram of the stuff is sold for as high as Rs. 2,000,” said T.S. Sasikumar, circle inspector, excise enforcement and anti-narcotics special squad.
Even if they are caught with up to five grams of heroin and one kilogram of ganja, which is considered small quantity, they easily get bail and they simply go back to their trade. Conviction is a possibility only if they are caught with drugs beyond small quantities and that too if the enforcement officials manage to file the charge sheet within the remand period. Else, the accused will walk free yet again.
