Life has been far from normal for the residents of a high-rise apartment complex at Edachira, near Thrikkakara, for nearly a fortnight now.
On August 16, a body with multiple violent cuts was found wrapped in a bedsheet and shoved into a duct on the 16th floor, sending shockwaves through the area. The deceased was identified as Sajeev Krishna, 23, of Malappuram, who was one of the five youngsters residing in the apartment.
The Kochi City police tracked down the key suspect, Arshad, from Manjeshwaram in Kasaragod. He was arrested with narcotic substances, including MDMA and hashish oil, while attempting to cross the border to Karnataka. It emerged that he was known to the victim only for a fortnight and had stayed with him for even fewer days.
“He [Arshad] had checked in as the guest of another family in an apartment on the 20th floor. He had come across as a silent guy, and nothing suggested that he was capable of such a violent act. We are no longer allowing guests now as there is a sense of fear among the residents. While the newly married couples have brought in their parents for company, the elderly living next to the apartment concerned hardly ever venture out,” said N.A. Jaleel, a resident of the apartment complex for a decade.
What was even more disconcerting was the fact that it was not a one-off incident but the third such murder in the city in less than a week, and two of them were linked to drugs in one way or the other. A money transaction of ₹50,000, which the police suspect is linked to drugs, reportedly led to the violent death of Krishna. The police also suspect that both the victim and the suspect were into drugs, and their apartment was a centre of substance abuse.
C.H. Nagaraju, District Police Chief (Kochi City), admitted that the soaring influx of drugs was perpetrating violent crimes in the city with enforcement agencies capturing just a fraction of the substances floating around. “Awareness is the only way to check the menace. We have prioritised going up the supply chain layers to reach the source though the use of Dark Web and cryptocurrency by drug dealers has made it tough,” he said.
The stabbing of a man to death at Ernakulam North on the night of August 10 also had an unmistakable drug link. The accused, still at large, is a known drug abuser, besides being a habitual offender. Three persons arrested in connection with another similar murder under the South overbridge in the early hours of August 14 were reportedly under the influence of alcohol.
Flow of drugs from abroad
That a passenger was intercepted with 30 kg of psychotropic drugs worth around ₹60 crore at the Kochi airport not long after the spate of murders further put the drug menace in focus. He had come from Zimbabwe via Doha, pointing to an alarming trend of drugs from abroad finding their way into Kochi.
Earlier, in five separate incidents in less than as many months, Excise officials had seized 291 LSD stamps, 3,115.80 grams of MDMA, and 9,881.90 grams of cocaine delivered as couriers from diverse destinations such as the Netherlands, Poland, the U.S., and Qatar. In all these cases, the orders were placed over the Dark Web and payments made through cryptocurrency, leaving Excise officials hamstrung to take the investigations to their logical conclusion.
Admitting that drugs were leading to a surge in the crime rate, Ernakulam Deputy Excise Commissioner P.V. Aleyas was specifically concerned about the sudden surge in the use of MDMA. He said the high price attached to the drug added a status quotient to it, further jacking up its demand.
‘Unrest in society’
“There is a general climate of frustration and unrest in society, making the entry of drugs easier both in terms of reduction of frustration and as a means of pleasure. Frustration breeds aggression, and drugs reduce inhibitions in the resultant violence. Grassroots-level initiatives are needed for identifying youngsters prone to violence and equipping them with frustration management. Our youth organisations are doing little towards that end even as the gender gap in substance abuse is getting reduced rapidly,” said noted psychiatrist C.J. John.
Mahitha Vipinachandran, school counsellor with the Department of Women and Child Development, said the vulnerability of youngsters to drug abuse seemed to have increased in the post-pandemic scenario. “The addiction strips them of an empathetic mind and boosts their criminal tendency. We have come across youngsters who have gone out of control in their addiction and even sold off valuables to feed their addiction,” she said.
Security in apartments
The murder in the apartment has also drawn attention to loopholes in the security management apparatus in apartment complexes. The police had alleged a lack of accountability on the part of the apartment complex concerned and communication gap with the police in alerting them about unusual activities and movement of strangers.
To overcome the shortcoming, the Kochi City police have envisaged a plan of rating apartment complexes in terms of security management. Also, the police have warned of invoking abetment charges against apartment complexes found wanting in complying with security norms if a mishap happens on their premises.
V.S. Somanathan, general secretary of All Kerala Flat Owners’ Association, alleged that a majority of apartment associations were corrupt and hence their directions often went unheeded. He called for the intervention of enforcement agencies to ensure that standard security norms were complied with.
He said there was no standard method in the maintenance of entry registers in most apartment complexes, and that security guards employed for negligible wages often reduced the maintenance of registers and security to a sham.
