Vehicle theft for substance abuse: 20 more students under the scanner in Kozhikode city

All the identified students are less than 17-years old. They will be quizzed soon to elicit details of big sharks behind the illegal business.

“We were shocked to learn that some of the eight students nabbed on Saturday for motorcycle thefts used to beat up their parents. The parents themselves had revealed it and appealed to the police to act tough against them,” said an Assistant Commissioner of Police who was part of the investigation. He said three of the nabbed students were under de-addiction treatment and two others were school dropouts.

The police officer also revealed that the students’ gang sold the stolen motorbikes at a cheap rate below ₹5,000 to quickly mobilise money for drug purchase. Consumption of psycho-addictive synthetic drugs such as MDMA had critically affected the mental health of three students whose eccentric behaviour was found highly intolerable, he said.

One of the strange trends that the police noticed while quizzing suspected students was that many of them showed unusual stubbornness to withhold the truth and not reveal details of hidden deals. Some of them were even clever to distort facts and pass misleading information to divert the probe.

“The investigation into the case is progressing under the leadership of a seven-member Special Action Group against Organised Crimes (SAGOC). The majority of the 20 more students zeroed in by the squad are drug addicts and suspected of having involvement in vehicle thefts,” said a Sub Inspector working under the Special Action Group. He also said a separate squad of 20 police officers from the Armed Reserve camp and the District Anti-Narcotics Action Force were also keen on tracking similar cases in the city independently.