In the world of crime, rackets are often associated with lucrative stuff that guarantees instant profit proportionate to the risk taken.
But does a racket for stealing bananas make any sense and that too when everyone is crying over the plummeting price of agrarian crops?
Gang of six
As improbable as it may sound, Mundakkayam police have busted such a variant of organised gang of teenage thieves, which has been literally ‘harvesting’ crops from the plantain farms in the eastern outskirts of the district.
It, however, has emerged that the gang of six, which also included two minors, fell in love with the crop to meet their more serious need — to buy ganja.
Arrested
The arrested were identified as Sajith Valuparambil, 19, Lins Vazhayil, 24, Ajith Puthuparambil, 18, and Sajith Mullur, 18.
Of the remaining two accused, one was a Plus Two student while the other was a school dropout.
According to police officers, the gang would sneak into the plantations in the region, a prime crop production area, in the dead of the night and harvest bunches on a big scale.
“The farmers noticed a substantial drop in production. Based on the complaint, police lodged a probe based on the teenagers engaged in banana trade in the region and tracked down the culprits,” said T.P. Sanjay, Sub Inspector, Mundakkayam.
Probe
During the probe, the cops also took into custody a vehicle, used by the gang to transport the booty.
Meanwhile, officials also spoke of the possibility of several such thefts going unreported from the region. “Growers remain unaware of it until enough bunches go missing,” they said.
The accused were produced before a magistrate and remanded to judicial custody.
The minor delinquents, on the other hand, were produced before the juvenile justice board.
A probe is now on to trace the person who retailed ganja to the gang.
