Two Coimbatore cops suspended for helping ganja peddler

COIMBATORE: Two cops were suspended for aiding a ganja peddler by alerting him about police’s plan to act against his accomplices who were heading to Coimbatore with a huge load of contraband.

A few days ago, police arrested Ganesan, a ganja peddler from Tirunelveli, for supplying ganja bought from Andhra Pradesh among college students in Coimbatore, Thoothukudi, and Tirunelveli districts.

Acting on his information -- that one of his accomplices will be bringing 40kg of ganja to Coimbatore from Andhra -- the police formed special teams to nab the offender.

The teams were closely tracking the mobile phone of the smuggler to monitor the movement of his mini load carrier.

“As Coimbatore approached, the smuggler’s mobile phone turned off. But the police managed to intercept his vehicle. However, instead of 40kg, we found a meager two kg of ganja in the vehicle,” a police officer said.

Suspecting a leak on the operation, the police tracked all the calls received by the smuggler. “The last call he received just before his phone went off was from constable Ravi Sekar from Ramanathapuram police station,” the police officer said.

Further investigations revealed that Ganesan, who was lodged at the station, had bribed two constables -- Ravi Sekar and Mayasudhakar -- in exchange for a mobile phone so he could alert his accomplice of the police operation.

“Following his alert the driver unloaded 40 kg of ganja and carried just two kg of the contraband to Coimbatore,” he said.