PALAKKAD: A car vrooming at breakneck speed knocking down bikes and causing a series of accidents. An excise vehicle chasing the car. And people on the road fleeing for their lives. It was a scene straight from a thriller that unveiled on the Walayar-Kanjikode stretch of National Highway 544 on Saturday morning.
Around 8am, a team of officials from the excise department — waiting near the Walayar checkpost — found a car moving suspiciously and asked the driver to stop. However, the car accelerated and sped past the excise barricade. The team led by assistant excise commissioner M Rakesh felt something fishy and started chasing the vehicle.
The two youths in the car panicked as they found the excise vehicle right behind them. The chase continued for half an hour and the car hit eight vehicles — bikes and cars — before crashing against the median. A gas tanker lost control and hit the median at Kanjikode while attempting to escape the speeding car. The duo had no other option but to abandon the car and escape as the tyres burst under the impact of the crash. Though they tried to jump into the river from the Naragampully bridge, the excise team managed to catch them.
The two youths — Ranjith and Shihab, both from Manjeri — were carriers transporting ganja from Chennai to Tirur. The excise seized 54kg of ganja worth Rs 30 lakh from the car. They were produced before the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court in Palakkad and remanded in judicial custody.
Duo collected ganja from Chennai
The excise team included circle inspector P K Satheesh, Parali inspector K R Ajith, assistant inspector P Santosh Kumar, and preventive officers G Shiju, A Faizal Rehman, B Shybu, R Udayan and P H Pratyush.
The team was waiting at Walayar following a tip-off about a lorry transporting 500kg of ganja. The two
youths had collected ganja from a supplier in Chennai and were told to deliver it to an agent in Tirur.