Drug peddler, who used dogs to attack police personnel and escape, nabbed from Tamil Nadu

A suspected drug peddler, who had allegedly let loose violent dogs on a police search party before absconding, was nabbed from his hideout at Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu, police said on Friday.

The accused, Robin (29), was apprehended from Tamil Nadu and brought to Gandhi Nagar police station on Thursday night for further interrogation, police said.

"He was caught in Tamil Nadu and brought to Kerala yesterday night," police said, adding he is being interrogated here.

A surprise search planned by the Anti-Narcotics squad of the Kottayam police at the house of Robin suspected to be a drug dealer on September 24 night came as a shock for them due to the presence of several violent dogs trained to bite anyone wearing 'khaki' attire.

The presence of the dogs hindered the search process on Sunday night and also enabled the accused to escape from the police who were focused on avoiding the attacks by the canines.

However, the dogs were subdued and over 17 kg of ganja was seized from the site, police had said.

Kottayam SP K Karthick IPS had said that they were not expecting so many dogs and that they would be violent.

"The accused had imparted training to the dogs to bite on seeing khaki. He had been briefly trained in dog handling by a person retired from the BSF, but was thrown out from there for asking questions like how to make dogs bite someone wearing khaki," the SP had said.

The police official had also said the accused under the guise of being a dog trainer was selling drugs and the same was evident from the seizure of over 17 kg of ganja from the site.

According to preliminary investigation, the accused was living here on rent and was known to everyone in the area as a dog trainer.

"Therefore, people used to leave their dogs with him, at the rate of Rs 1,000 per day, when they went outside and he would look after the canines," Karthick had said.