Scuffles with uniformed personnel, daring escapes from custody, and days spent on the run are often associated with hardened, history-sheeted criminals. But when such an incident involves a young offender raises deeper concerns.
Such an episode unfolded at a borstal school in Kakkanad, Kerala’s only correctional institution dedicated to reforming offenders aged between 18 and 21, where a 19-year-old accused in a theft case managed to escape from police custody. The escape triggered an intensive search operation and posed a significant challenge to the police for several days.
The sequence of events began in the last week of January, when a theft was reported at a two-wheeler workshop at Kidangoor town in Kottayam, where spare parts were stolen from vehicles kept on the premises.
The CCTV footage led the police to identify Max Binoy, a native of Cheruvandoor in Ettumanoor, as the suspect. He was subsequently taken into custody and produced before the Ettumanoor Judicial First Class Magistrate Court, which remanded him.
However, taking into account the accused’s young age, the court directed that he be lodged at the borstal school.
Following the court’s order, at around evening on January 30 Max was escorted by police personnel to the Borstal School as part of standard accused escort duty — a transfer that would soon lead to another unexpected turn in the case.
“While he (Max) was being taken out of the police vehicle, the accused pulled the escort personnel close to him, attacked other officers on escort duty, and fled from the scene. Although we chased him on foot, our efforts were unsuccessful,” says a member of the escort team.
Despite search operations continuing until nightfall, the police were unable to trace the accused. Night patrol teams within nearby police station limits also carried out extensive searches, but failed to locate him.
The police had also circulated the accused’s photograph along with a message through public WhatsApp groups of residential associations. However, this led to numerous unverified calls from locals claiming to have spotted the suspect at different locations, which made the tracing operation more difficult, said the officer.
Even after three days had passed, the police were unable to trace or apprehend the accused, leaving the escort team from the Kidangoor police station stranded and unable to return to their parent station.
Their anxiety deepened when reports emerged from the superintendent’s office that suspension orders were being prepared against three personnel, including the sub-inspector, who led the escort duty squad.
After the officers made an earnest appeal to the superior officers, the suspension orders were held back for 24 hours, granting them a narrow and tense window of relief.
Amid mounting pressure, a possible breakthrough surfaced at the Thrikkakara police station, that a scooter parked by a roadside had been stolen by a youth, and suspicion pointed toward the involvement of Max.
The investigation into the stolen scooter reached a turning point when the vehicle was traced to the Kidangoor area. This discovery indicated to the probe team that the accused was likely hiding within familiar surroundings.
During an intensive search operation conducted in coordination with the night patrol team, Max was located inside a dilapidated house situated within a ten-acre rubber plantation in Kidangoor — a place suspected to be a hideout for anti-social elements.
Anticipating all possible escape routes, the police surrounded the area on February 3 and successfully apprehended the accused. After his arrest, Max was taken to the Thrikkakara police station in connection with the scooter theft case and was later remanded to judicial custody.
Detailing about the sequence of events after Max’s escape, a top source with the Thrikkakara police station stated, “Even after the escort personnel called off the chase, Max continued running until he managed to distance himself from immediate pursuit. It was then that he spotted a scooter belonging to a Thrikkakara native, which had been parked by the roadside, and used it to flee the area.”
As he moved further, the scooter ran low on fuel. Max siphoned petrol from another two-wheeler parked nearby and continued his journey. However, the scooter again ran out of fuel when he reached a location near Vaikom. Undeterred, he repeated the act, draining petrol from yet another parked motorcycle to extend his escape.
Eventually, upon reaching his native area, Max abandoned the scooter and slipped into his familiar hideout, believing it would shield him from immediate detection. However, the abandoned vehicle would become a crucial lead for the police — ultimately paving the way for the operation that led to his capture.
“Though Max is only 19, his criminal activities are far from minor. He was accused in an attempted murder case at the age of 16, and notably, the victim was a police officer,” says the officer with Thrikkakara police station.
The officer further adds that the police were concerned about why the court had directed such a repeat offender to be sent to a borstal school instead of a regular prison.