Hitting back at Keralam Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala’s allegation that the previous Left Democratic Front (LDF) government had failed to take effective action to prevent the spread of drugs, Leader of the Opposition Pinarayi Vijayan has said that the figures presented in Parliament and the Assembly prove that the anti-drug activities of the LDF government were exemplary.
In a Facebook post on Tuesday (September 1, 2026), he said that the Kerala Police had after a 2.4-kg drug bust at Thrissur in July 2024 tracked down its origins and shut down an international drug manufacturing lab run by a film producer in Kukatpally, Hyderabad. “The Kerala Police did something that Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy could not do,” he said.
Union Minister’s reply
Mr. Vijayan said that according to a reply given by the Union Finance Minister in the Lok Sabha on February 3, 2025, Keralam has been taking the strongest action against drugs since 2022. Keralam had registered thrice the number of cases registered by the State which had the second position in the number of drug cases registered.
According to the reply given by the Union government in the Rajya Sabha on December 22, 2022, the conviction rate in Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) cases in Keralam was more than 98%, while the national average was 78%. In Telangana, it was only 25%, he said.
“From 2021 to 2025, the Kerala Police registered 1,26,855 NDPS cases. Strict monitoring and strong interventions like ‘Operation D-Hunt’ have led to a 538% increase in case registration. In the past five years, the Excise department has registered 41,946 NDPS cases and 4,18,403 COTPA cases in Keralam, as per a reply by Excise Minister M. Liju in response to a question from U.R. Pradeep, MLA, on June 23, 2026,” said Mr. Vijayan.
Strong interventions
The seizure of 80 kg of MDMA by the Keralam Excise department from Andaman and Nicobar in 2023, the 5-kg MDMA hunt in Kochi in 2018, and the massive drug seizures by excise, including Operation D-Hunt, during 2022-2025 are clear examples of the LDF government’s strong interventions, he said.
Case involving CM’s aide
Mr. Vijayan said that the Opposition had never opposed the Operation Toofan anti-drug campaign. However, it had flagged the attempt to sabotage the MDMA case involving Chief Minister V.D. Satheesan’s social media coordinator. The police were pressured to stop the collection of scientific evidence in the Kasaragod case. They were not ready to produce the phones seized from the accused in court or take them to Bengaluru for evidence collection. This showed the pressure exerted by the Chief Minister’s Office on the Home department in the Kasaragod case and the helplessness of the Minister, alleged Mr. Vijayan.
Published – September 01, 2026 07:55 pm IST
