Kochi: The Kochi city and the Ernakulam rural polices are preparing to relaunch the drive against goons and quotation gangs under the Kerala Anti-social Activities Prevention Act (KAAPA) in the backdrop of the increasing number of shady activities in the district in the past few weeks. The incidents indicate that it is high time for the cops to bring back their drive to weed out goons just as they did a few months back.
The latest incident was the one involving a group of 20 men who barged into the house of one Kuppiyan Aboobacker at Chelamattam near Perumbavur on Friday night and attacked the family with swords and explosives.
The victim was fortunate to escape the attack as he ran away from his house. The gang also broke furniture and electronic goods in the house before damaging the motorbikes.
The Ernakulam Rural Police, which was struggling for a while because of the goon-menace in rural areas including Aluva, Nedumbassery, Kothamangalam and Muvattupuzha, had earlier implemented KAAPA to weed out criminals. Kochi city and Ernakulam rural police had together detained over 100 goons during the special drive.
The decision to enforce KAAPA Act has come in handy for the police as they could successfully identify history-sheeters and regular offenders.
The drive was stopped eventually after most of the goons were behind bars. However with the detention period getting over for all those goons and with the emergence of new ones, the quotation activity is back in its strongholds in various parts of the district, according to police.
The trend of goon-gangs moving out of the Kochi city and forming zones in rural areas has been a headache for the police. A central zone review meeting convened by the director general of police recently had also discussed the menace of mushrooming goon gangs.
