Thiruvananthapuram: Leader of the opposition Pinarayi Vijayan has hit back at home minister Ramesh Chennithala’s remark that the previous govt could not seize even 500g of MDMA during its 10-year rule, citing the drug seizures and cases registered during the LDF govt’s tenure.Vijayan said Chennithala could have understood the scale of the LDF govt’s drug crackdown had he at least checked with Telangana chief minister Revanth Reddy.He cited a July 2024 case in which the Kerala police, while tracing the source of 2.4kg of MDMA seized in Thrissur, identified and shut down an international drug manufacturing laboratory allegedly run by a film producer at Kukatpally in Hyderabad. Chemicals were also seized with the assistance of forensic experts. Vijayan said Kerala police had achieved in Hyderabad what Telangana govt headed by Reddy could not.He also cited Centre’s data to claim that the LDF govt’s anti-drug measures were exemplary. According to a reply given by the finance minister in the Lok Sabha on Feb 3, 2025, Kerala had taken the strongest action against drugs since 2022.Kerala police registered 1,26,855 NDPS cases between 2021 and 2025, Vijayan said, attributing the 538% increase in case registration to close monitoring and interventions such as Operation D-Hunt.He said the opposition had never opposed Operation Toofan and had extended full support to the drug crackdown. However, the opposition had questioned alleged high-level attempts to derail an international MDMA case in which the chief minister’s social media coordinator was an accused, he said.
