KOCHI: It could easily pass off as a scene from a light-hearted flick. A neighbourhood thief, bored with life outside, is plotting his way back into jail. Except this one is real, and it happened in Kovalam last month.
Police describe him as a habitual sneak thief, someone who picks up small valuables and spends the money on alcohol. Locals know him well. They gripe about him, but he is not entirely pushed out. He is seen around his house or at the nearby junction — a familiar if troublesome presence.
Dilip Khan, 46, lives alone in Avaduthura in Kovalam. Earlier this year, he was lodged in the Neyyattinkara sub jail in a theft case. It should have been a return to freedom when he was released in March.
However, soon after returning home, he carried out two thefts. At a supermarket on Harbour Road in Kovalam, he broke open a DVR system and took Rs 40,000 that had been kept on a table.
He also stole a mobile phone. Not long after, he targeted a chicken shop in the area and walked away with cash and another phone.
He didn’t bother to plan a modus operandi. Instead, it seemed like he wanted to be caught. The police tracked him down using CCTV visuals, and he was arrested without much difficulty.
“Dilip is an accused in more than 21 theft cases across Vizhinjam and Kovalam, involving both minor and major incidents. But we do not have to go anywhere to find him. He will always be around his home or at the junction,” says Kovalam SI Noushad.
During questioning, he did not deny anything. Instead, he told the police that his life had fallen apart.
The steady routine he had grown used to was gone. There were no fixed meals, no structure to the day, no sense of certainty.
What he spoke about with surprising detail was not life outside, but life inside prison.
“There, he had three proper meals a day. There was an order. Also, he used to work as a chief cook in the prison kitchen, earning wages and handling responsibility. It was a proper life, repetitive perhaps, but one that gave him stability – that is what he told us,” says Noushad.
Outside prison, he told the police, there was no one to provide food or shelter. There was no companionship. Days were uncertain and difficult to get through, raising questions about rehabilitation after imprisonment.
Missing prison life, Dilip made a decision to return to jail, the only way he knew how. In the end, his plan worked.