Properties of 13 ganja offenders freezed

MADURAI: The South zone police have intensified a crackdown on ganja offenders and frozen illegally acquired movable and immovable property worth Rs 12.5 crore of 13 ganja case accused and their relatives after conducting financial investigation throughout last year.

A total of 1,091 ganja cases were booked against offenders in 2022 and the proactive action triggered a freeze on 1,956 suspicious bank accounts of the accused and their relatives concerning the crime, sources said on Saturday. All these cases were booked across 10 southern districts.

During last year, the police executed bonds on as many as 1,377 assuring their good behaviour and among them, 58 ganja case accused were arrested for violating the bond conditions. In the current year, such bonds were executed on 255 ganja case offenders in January.

To deter such crime and deal with the ganja offenders, the police as per the directive of South Zone Inspector General Asra Garg, opened history sheet against 624 accused, including 132 in Virudhunagar district, 131 in Dindigul district, 85 in Madurai district, 59 each in Theni and Kanniyakumari districts, 46 in Tirunelveli district, 28 in Thoothukudi, 26 each in Ramanathapuram and Sivaganga, 15 in Tenkasi and 17 in Tirunelveli city.