South zone police freeze properties of ganja case convict in Theni dist

In a major move as part of efforts to curb drug menace in the state, the South Zone police on Tuesday freezed properties worth Rs 22.50 lakh of a ganja case convict and his relatives.

According to sources, Myladumparai police team acting on a tip off on March 12, 2017, raided the premises of Murugan alias Keeripatti Murugan (52) on Muthu Ayyar Street, Kumananthozhu under the limits of Myladumparai police and seized 220 kg of ganja from his farm along Kombaithozhu Road in Kamankallur. Following the seizure, the police on April 12 filed a case under Sections 8 (c) r/w 20 (b) (ii) (C) of NDPS Act ,1985 and arrested Keeripatti Murugan.

After completing the investigation, a chargesheet was filed in the EC court, Madurai. Keeripatti Murugan was convicted and sentenced to undergo 10 years of rigorous imprisonment. The court also slapped a fine of Rs 1 lakh on him on May 10 in 2019.

Subsequently, South Zone Inspector General of Police Asra Garg and Rupesh Kumar Meena, Deputy Inspector General of Police, Dindigul range, instructed the Theni police to conduct an investigation to identify the properties of the convict and his relatives as per the NDPS Act.

After the completion of investigation by special teams, led by Andipatti DSP Ramalingam, under the supervision of Theni SP Dongare Pravin Umesh, assets worth Rs 22.50 lakh belonging to the convicts and his relatives were frozen on Tuesday.

The frozen assets include vehicles, bank balances and other transactions.

The team has also identified a house worth Rs 12 lakh belonging to Nagaraj, brother-in-law of the convict and a resident of Kumananthozhu Village, Myladumparai, vacant site worth Rs 10 lakh belonging to Indirani, sister of the convict and a bike worth Rs 38,000 belonging to Murugan.

It’s the second such action this year executed by the Theni district police against a ganja case convict and their relatives. So far, this year, 66 ganja cases had been registered in the district and 335 kg of ganja along with 15 vehicles used for transportation of the contraband were seized. Therefore, a total of 123 have been arrested in ganja cases and 17 of them have been detained under the Goondas Act. Such measure of asset freeze would certainly have a socio economic impact on wrongdoers in these cases.