Student’s death: 3 ganja peddlers held; locals suspect murder

Kasaragod, Mar 7: The police have arrested three persons, including a minor, on the charge of supplying ganja to a Class 10 student of a school here who was found dead four days after he had been reported missing from his house on March 1.

The highly decomposed body of Muhammad Jasir (15) was found in a drainage along the railway tracks at Kalanad, near Uduma, on Monday.

A team led by Bekal Circle Inspector V.K. Vishwambharan arrested Subeesh and Sameer, both aged 20, on the charge of possessing 250 gm of ganja.

They were arrested under the provisions of the Juvenile Justice Act and remanded in judicial custody by the Hosdurg Judicial First Class Magistrate court at Kanhangad.

The third accused, a 17-year-old boy, was sent to a Juvenile Home near Paravanadukkam. The police, assisted by the forensic surgeon at the Pariyaram Medical College Hospital, confirmed that the boy was killed after he was knocked down by an express train on Thursday.

There were no marks of inflicted wounds on the boy’s body.

The police have taken urine samples from the boy’s body to ascertain whether he was under the influence of ganja at the time of death.

The boy was a student of Chattamchal Higher Secondary School. He had left home under the pretext of going to buy new clothes to wear for a send-off ceremony at the school.

A group of local people took out a march to the Bekal police station alleging that the boy was murdered by a vested group.

The agitators said that there were no signs on the body that indicated that the boy was hit by a train while walking along the tracks. A deliberate bid to eliminate him resulted in his murder, said his father who took part in the march.