The head of Kerala’s state Excise Enforcement Squad departs after a 25-year campaign against drugs

Head of the State Excise Enforcement Squad (SEES), T Anikumar, hung up his boots on Tuesday, capping a 25-year career with the agency he helped transform into a formidable force against the drug epidemic.

 

The former assistant commissioner for excise stood out for his commitment and persistence, which supported the SEES in solving several cases and bolstered the campaign against the organized drug trade, which considered Kerala to be a profitable market in which to sell its goods.

Quantifying his accomplishments would be a difficult undertaking. Under his leadership, the 2019-founded SEES has confiscated 9,000 kg of cannabis, one lakh liters of spirit, 250 kg of hashish oil, and more than 750 vehicles—150 of which were lorries—that were transporting the illegal goods.

In the course of its several raids, the SEES also confiscated Rs 2 crore from narcotics dealers. Anikumar got 400 excellent Service Entries for his excellent deeds, the most any excise officer in the state has ever received.

Anikumar, a resident of Thiruvananthapuram district’s Chanthavila, said that the establishment of SEES marked a turning point in the department’s history by giving detectives the confidence to undertake risky investigations.

“Two significant turning points in our war on drugs were the establishment of the Excise Commissioner’s Squad and SEES. Large narcotics consignments, including quintals of ganja, were successfully seized after SEES, he said. This was a major setback for the organized crime networks.

Anikumar claims that Kerala has been able to keep things clean in terms of alcohol manufacturing. Kerala is not a place where drugs are made. But since there is a market here, narcotics from other states do end up in the state, he added.

He claims that whereas synthetic drugs, such as MDMA, are acquired from Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, and Goa, cannabis is mostly imported from the border regions of Andhra Pradesh and Odisha.

According to Anikumar, policies should be adjusted to better effectively combat the danger posed by drug use among adolescents.

Teaching awareness alone won’t cut it. In order to maintain a clean campus environment for schools and colleges, the supply of drugs to students should be stopped. To complete the objective, school instructors and excise authorities should collaborate more closely.

According to Anikumar, the NDPS (Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances) Act conviction rate is rising as a result of the officers’ increased proficiency in using the act’s provisions to file strong cases.

That wasn’t the case before. A person would have typically been charged under the Abkari Act if they were found in possession of both spirit and ganja. Back then, the police believed that making a booking under the NDPS Act was a difficult procedure. However, we adjusted the situation on our own initiative. We started learning how to make a strong case by studying the court rulings in NDPS Act cases. We published a guidebook outlining the steps to take in NDPS instances as a result of the initiative, and it was highly appreciated,” he said.

Anikumar had difficulties as well throughout his anti-drug campaign.