(This is the final part of a series on Kerala Police officers who chase criminals beyond the state borders.)
There is no better accomplice for a thief than a careless target. Several residents in Thiruvananthapuram city were robbed of their belongings while they got distracted by a few currency notes strewn on the road. The series of robberies a year ago pointed to the handiwork of the same gang. The city shadow police team was assigned the investigation.
The officers shadowed the suspects for many days and traced their origin to a shady village in southern Tamil Nadu known for its residents who consider theft and robbery as a legitimate, even inherited, form of livelihood. The team nabbed the gang leader from his house after a 16-day pursuit.
The arrest cracked a number of cases including a robbery in front of a jewelry shop in Thiruvananthapuram just ahead of last Deepavali. The thieves made away with lakhs of rupees kept in the jeweler’s vehicle parked in front of the shop. The investigators realized that the robbers’ modus operandi bore a striking resemblance to a theft reported from a city hospital in 2014.
The officers subjected footage of both the robberies to detailed examinations and found that similar operations were reported from several places across Kerala. They knew they were not dealing with any ordinary criminals here. It takes minute planning to rob someone in a busy city district and flee within a minute without a trace.
Read Cops on Trail Part - II: The 'con'stable who lorded over a racket of thieves
The team cast its net wide and looked for similar patterns in other states. The Tamil Nadu police were of some help. The operations matched those of a gang from a village near Tiruchy. They would divert their targets’ attention to the currency notes carelessly thrown in front of them. While the victims got greedy, the robbers relieved them of their possessions. Some of the gangs in the village have even returned with diamonds from Delhi.
The village thieves, interestingly, did not take the thefts lightly. They prayed to the local deity before they set out for their adventures across the country, like any other professional looking for a little divine intervention. After each operation, they went to Kanyakumari to pray at the temple. They would take a dip in the sacred sea to wash away their sins before returning home.
Read Cops on Trail Part - III: A midnight sortie into a fortified village of thieves
None of them had any cases pending in any police station near their village, Ramji Nagar. Yet officers from 36 police stations from other states were present in Tiruchy when the Thiruvananthapuram shadow police reached the village. A team from the Andhra police barged into the village after shooting in the air just a week ago, the local police told the Kerala team.
Image for representation only. FileThe eight-member team from Kerala were faced with formidable oppositions. The local police were incredibly helpful with details of the village. What the team did not know then was that some of their local counterparts were tipping off the villagers about their newest pursuers. The suspects were supplied with information on every move of the outsiders by everyone from merchants to policemen.
Read Cops on Trail Part - IV: Everybody loves a theft in this Bengal village
The Kerala team changed its strategy. The officers told the local police that they had enough of the investigation and were going home. In fact, they were just starting a parallel investigation.
They could not rent a room in the locality without alerting the suspects. So the eight men stayed put in their vehicle and the deserted fields while they did a recce of the village. They even managed to rope in an informant from the village with great difficulty. The hesitation was understandable. A villager was shot dead several years ago on suspicions of talking to the police.
The thieves were men of dignity in the village. Most of them lived in spacious houses and sent their children to engineering or medical colleges.
Read Cops on Trail Part -V: The extraordinary exploits of the ‘Kannur squad’
There was hardly a house in the village which was smaller than 3,000 square feet. Almost everyone had bolstered their main door with another door made of iron bars to prevent the police easy entry. Some of the houses had more elaborate security arrangements.
Armed with strategic information and firearms, the officers sneaked into the village and barged into the house identified as that of the main suspect. To their disappointment, the house was empty. Just then, an officer spotted a ladder near the washroom. He climbed up the ladder to a trapdoor that led to a hidden alcove. They found their target in that alcove. They arrested Mithra Mohan and Sathya, another big shot in the village. They left the village with the suspects before daybreak. Anyway, there were not many people in the village. They were busy stealing elsewhere.
Mohan had built an enviable house with the loot. The rooms were air-conditioned and fully furnished. The kitchen had all the modern facilities. The police found Rs 5 lakh from the house.
The team informed the top officers in Tamil Nadu of their operations before they left for Kerala. They later learned that they were the only ones to get lucky with the operations. The teams from other parts of India had left empty handed.
The operation became the crowning glory of the Thiruvananthapuram shadow team, which is busy with another investigation at this very moment. Shadow teams in every district do a commendable job, led by the district police chief. There are other special teams led by the superintendent of police and deputy superintendents of police in every district.
Their caliber and daredevilry match any crack force in the world but they have no support system or modern technology to rely on. The top echelons seldom care to equip the special teams, as long as they get the work done somehow.
The teams are further weakened by frequent transfers of their members even while they are busy conducting an investigation.
When 300 cops join the force, only 10 of them are deputed to investigation. The others are absorbed into routine station responsibilities and traffic management. The shadow teams and special teams have been constantly asking for more officers to back them up.
(We have resisted the temptation to publish the photographs of the Thiruvananthapuram shadow police team because they are supposed to remain anonymous. Many of the cases they have cracked are in the trial stage.)
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