Old phone number leads to re-arrest of Wayanad man in 30-year-old domestic violence case

Wayanad: A routine check of old case files by an incoming Station House Officer in Kalpetta led to the arrest of Thadathil Aboobacker, who had been absconding for thirty years since getting out on conditional bail in a domestic violence case.

While updating the status of 'missing on bail' cases under his police station, A U Jayaprakash, who had assumed charge as SHO a week ago, found that a mobile number left by one of his predecessors as the fugitive's suspected contact was active. The earlier investigator had also jotted down the contact of an informer.

A simple enquiry traced the fugitive to Chanthakkunnu in Malappuram. “We planned a late-night operation,” Jayaprakash said. When there was a knock on his door at night, Aboobacker did not have the slightest of idea that he was about to be arrested for a three-decade-old case. The police said he was cooperative.

Aboobacker was first arrested in 1994 for demanding dowry and assaulting his wife. A court granted him bail under stringent conditions. He was ordered to pay maintenance to his wife and three children. But he fled and the police could not track him down.

Sometime later, Aboobacker called one of his relatives, who had a property dispute with him. That person passed the phone number to the police, but by the time the officers went looking, Aboobacker was missing again. He migrated to the Gulf and worked there for a decade. During one of his holidays, Aboobacker found a bride and fathered two more children. In his new neighbourhood, Aboobacker was not a fugitive, but a gulf returnee. He was produced at the Chief Judicial Magistrate Court in Kalpetta, which remanded him to 14 days in judicial custody.