Kochi: In the wake of the new trend of drug peddling in which two cases were registered and an online food delivery executive was caught with drugs in an attempted smuggling, the Excise department has asked the food delivery companies to submit complete list of employees along with their details.
According to K. Chandrapalan, Deputy Excise Commissioner, Ernakulam, a notice will be issued to the companies as a further course of action if they are not willing to submit the details. “We have already asked them to submit the details of the delivery executives including their name, address and phone numbers and also details of their offices and staff in the district. However, we are yet to receive the details from the companies,” he said. “This way of smuggling can be stopped or prevented once the complete details of the delivery boys are received. The details will be checked to see if anyone who has a history of drug-related cases is working as staffer in the company and we can put that person under scanner.”
The Excise had earlier said that the delivery executives will have to register with the respective Excise range offices and should also possess identity cards.
Officials said that if they are not willing to submit the details within two days, a notice will be issued to the companies as a warning with regard to the cases registered in the district. “A case will be registered against the companies too if they are not willing to give the details,” an official source said. The department has also provision to move court by filing a report in this regard.
The Excise sleuths are on alert after the two incidents in which ganja and hashish, both around 500 grams, were seized from two persons in two different cases in Kochi. The first incident was almost a month ago. An online food delivery executive fled without stopping after asked to stop by the excise sleuths during a vehicle inspection near Kalamukku here. During the chase, they saw him throw a parcel away, from which the sleuths recovered ganja. In the second incident, hashish was seized from a youth who was using the mobile phone and vehicle of his friend who is registered with a food delivery company.
