Chennai, Feb 6 () The Tamil Nadu Police has opened history-sheets against ‘ganja’ peddlers in southern districts of the state, police said.
This action comes after high incidences of ‘ganja’ being peddled in the districts of Madurai, Tenkasi, Virudhunagar, Dindigul, Theni, Ramanathapuram, Sivaganga and Tirunelveli.
According to sources in the South Zone police department, history-sheets have been opened against 624 ‘ganja’ peddlers.
Generally history-sheets are opened against law and order and regular offenders, but the South Zone police have opened the history-sheets to curb the increasing incidences of ganja peddling in these districts.
In 2022, the South Zone police have attached properties worth Rs 12.5 crore of ganja peddlers and their relatives in connection with 13 cases of peddling and seizure of huge quantities of ganja and other banned psychotropic drugs.
The police have also frozen 1,956 bank accounts of the peddlers and their relatives. In another interesting development, the South Zone police have started collecting bonds from those convicted in ganja peddling cases to curb their further entry into the drug peddling business.
Police sources told that bonds have been collected from 1,377 suspects and a total of 58 offenders who violated the bond conditions were arrested.
The South Zone police have requested the special court to obtain bonds against convicts in ganja smuggling cases citing Section 34 of the NDPS Act.
The police said that earlier, the accused may be convicted with simple punishments, including a few weeks of prison and a small fine and once the convicts come out of the prison they again indulge in peddling.
After bonds were introduced, things turned murkier for the ganja peddlers and the police is expecting that the menace is curbed to a larger extent.
aal/khz/