Kalpetta : Police suspect pressure from drug gang might have driven the Mnanthawadi youth to suicide. The 22-year-old youth had killed himself ont 29th August. He named members of a Kannur-based drug gang in the Whatsapp message he sent his family shortly before taking the extreme step.
Police suspect the fear that the gang might harm his family weighed heavily on victim’s mind, ultimately leading to his suicide.
The Mananthawadi youth did his school in Kannur and later, degree in Wayanad after which, he returned to Kannur and lived there. The victim was quiet by nature and well loved in his community back home. During his stay in Kannur however, the local gang baited him onto drugs.
Up on realising what had happened, the youth’s family put him into a rehab, which helped him forego the drug habit. However, the drug gang would not let their prey slip away and stepped up threats and blackmail, until he could take the pressure no more and ended it all with suicide.
The family and villagers remain in shock over what happened to the calm demeanored young man they loved so much. The police will take testimonies of the family and neighbours in coming days. Meanwhile, another youth in Mananthavadi committed suicide on the same day as the original victim died and police are looking to see if there might be a connection.
Excise too is conducting their own probe into the two deaths.
