The Kozhikode Rural police have identified more suspects, including teachers, who were allegedly in frequent contact with the two women special educators attached to the Perambra Block Resource Centre (BRC) who were recently arrested in connection with a major drug-trafficking case.
Police sources said the bank transaction details and call detail records (CDRs) of several suspects from Perambra, Kuttiyadi and Nadapuram were collected as part of the continuing investigation. They also said that more teachers had been put under the scanner based on newly gathered digital evidence and statements from the two arrested special educators.
K.C. Keerthana of Maruthongara and her friend K. Kavya of Koorachundu were recently arrested by the anti-narcotics squad after it gathered digital evidence indicating their alleged role in facilitating financial transactions for drug pushers. Police sources said the bank accounts of the two women were found to have received money from drug pushers across the State.
Following the police action, the contractual appointments of Keerthana, who worked as a physical education instructor, and Kavya, who provided training support to children with special needs, were terminated by the Samagra Shiksha Kerala authorities last week. Sources at the Perambra BRC said disciplinary action was taken immediately after the arrests. They also claimed that no one was aware of the two instructors’ alleged association with drug traffickers.
A senior officer with the anti-narcotics squad said the two instructors were suspected of maintaining close contact with a group of students as part of an attempt to expand their network of carriers in the drug trade. “During the initial investigation itself, the two instructors were found to have been directly involved in sharing delivery locations with drug buyers after receiving payments,” the officer said.
The investigation team also dismissed claims circulating in some quarters that the arrested instructors were merely “scapegoats with no direct links to the alleged drug-trafficking network.” The two were arrested after several weeks of surveillance and the verification of multiple transaction records and social media communications, the police said. They added that an intensified search was under way to apprehend the kingpins behind the drug network.
Some student organisation activists from Perambra who reportedly gave statements to the police claimed that complaints had been lodged against one of the arrested special instructors for smoking during training sessions. They also alleged that no action had been taken on the complaints. According to them, the arrested instructors had also participated in various anti-drug campaigns.
