A surprise search planned by the Anti-Narcotics squad of the Kottayam police at the house of a man suspected to be a drug dealer resulted in a shock for them due to the presence of several violent dogs trained to bite anyone wearing 'khaki' attire.

The presence of the dogs hindered the search process on Sunday night and also enabled the accused to escape from the police who were focused on avoiding the attacks of the canines.

However, the dogs were subdued and over 17 kilograms of ganja was seized from the site, police said.

Speaking to reporters, Kottayam SP K Karthick IPS said it was close to midnight when the search team, also comprising officers from the nearby Gandhinagar police station, arrived at the location.

"We did not expect there would be so many dogs here and that they would be violent. So, we faced difficulty initially in carrying out a proper search. Fortunately, none of the officers were injured.

"The accused had imparted training to the dogs to bite on seeing khaki. He had been briefly trained in dog handling by a person retired from the BSF, but was kicked out from there for asking questions like how to make dogs bite someone wearing khaki," the SP said.

The top officer of the district police also said the accused under the guise of being a dog trainer was selling drugs and the same was evident from the seizure of over 17 kgs of ganja from the site.

"According to our preliminary investigation, he (accused) was living here on rent and was known to everyone in the area as a dog trainer. Therefore, people used to leave their dogs with him, at the rate of Rs 1,000 per day, when they went outside and he would look after the canines," Karthick said.

Presently, around 13 dogs were present there and after identifying their owners, the canines would be handed over to them.

He also said that a special investigation team has been constituted to probe the case.

"We first need to catch the accused and then find out if any others were also involved in the racket," the officer said.

The police decided to obtain a search warrant for the premises based on secret information received and subsequent investigation of the "suspicious activities" being carried out there, he said.

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