Published Oct 30, 2026 | 11:28 AM ⚊ Updated Oct 30, 2026 | 11:30 AM
Police suspect he stole the drugs and returned more than twice the original quantity after realising that the theft was about to be exposed.
Synopsis: A Sub-Inspector of the Ernakulam Central Police Station has been arrested for allegedly stealing 87 grams of MDMA from the station’s evidence locker and returning an unsealed packet containing 202 grams after the theft came under scrutiny. Anas S Thoufeeq, who was suspended following a Special Branch report, also faces a departmental inquiry and charges under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and the NDPS Act.
A Sub-Inspector of the Ernakulam Central Police Station in Keralam was arrested on Thursday, 29 October after allegedly returning 202 grams of MDMA in an unsealed packet after 87 grams of the drug kept in the station’s evidence locker was found to have been stolen.
Anas S Thoufeeq, 29, a native of Kattakkada in Thiruvananthapuram, was suspended following a Special Branch report. The suspension order said he had given misleading information in his explanation to the Station House Officer.
A case has been registered against him under Sections 306 and 238 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, dealing with theft by a clerk or servant and causing the disappearance of evidence, and Section 21(c) of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act.
Separately, a departmental inquiry led by the Assistant Commissioner of Police (Traffic West) is underway, and a report will be submitted within 10 days.
Anas had been associated with anti-narcotics awareness initiatives under Operation Toofan
The original consignment was part of the evidence seized in a narcotics case and kept at the station for destruction after the completion of court proceedings. A routine check into missing evidence revealed that Anas had entered the locker room on 18 October.
The station changed the room’s key during the inquiry. When Anas began asking about the new key, he was asked to explain his actions. Police suspect he stole the drugs and returned more than twice the original quantity after realising that the theft was about to be exposed.
Anas had been associated with anti-narcotics awareness initiatives under Operation Toofan, the Kerala Police campaign against drug trafficking and abuse.
Police are probing how the returned consignment came to contain an additional 115 grams, whether anyone at the station helped Anas, whether he had previously leaked information about narcotics cases and whether he removed the original consignment to implicate someone else. His financial background is also under scrutiny.
(Edited by Dese Gowda with inputs from Dileep V Kumar)
