A grainy CCTV clip. Two shadowy figures. No clear faces. No registration number.
When a sportsbike was stolen from the parking area of a lodge near Ernakulam Town railway station, officers at Ernakulam North police station set out to reconstruct a crime that had left almost no obvious trail.
At first glance, there was little to work with. The camera angle was poor, and the visuals were hazy. Yet, experienced investigators knew that even the weakest clue could become the strongest lead.
Soon, the probe team began collecting footage from nearby establishments to reconstruct the suspects’ movements. “As we pieced together the timeline, one clip caught our attention,” says an officer. “Two young men were seen moving suspiciously in the area around the time of the theft.”
Still, there was no way to establish their identities.
The screenshots of the suspects were circulated in an All Kerala Sub-Inspectors’ WhatsApp group. The breakthrough came sooner than expected.
Some officers from Valancherry recognised the duo almost immediately. “Both were habitual offenders from the Kuttipuram-Valancherry region, already wanted in connection with a motorcycle theft case registered there. They were on the run,” says the officer.
While Ernakulam police were verifying this lead, another development unfolded elsewhere. The same model had been stolen from Koothattukulam.
Acting on that case, Kottayam shadow police officers arrested the suspects at Chingavanam and brought them to Koothattukulam for interrogation.
Sensing an opportunity, Ernakulam investigators travelled there with photographs of their suspects. During questioning, the arrested men identified the same duo seen in the CCTV images from Ernakulam, strengthening the officers’ suspicions that the cases were linked.
The investigation then shifted from the streets to social media. One of the suspects’ Instagram accounts was traced.
Hidden in plain sight was the clue they had been looking for — a photograph of a motorcycle that matched the model stolen from Ernakulam.
“That image transformed suspicion into certainty,” the officer recalls.
The Instagram profile yielded another crucial lead: the mobile number currently being used by the suspect. Technical analysis placed the phone in Valancherry.
A police team from Ernakulam immediately set out for Malappuram district after alerting the local sub-inspector. By the time they reached, Valancherry police had already arrested the two accused in the pending motorcycle theft case and remanded them to judicial custody.
For the Ernakulam investigators, however, the mission was only half complete. Recovering the stolen motorcycle remained the priority.
The team questioned the remanded accused and soon learnt that a third accomplice was involved. “We traced him to a house in a village beyond Malappuram. He was taken into custody and, during interrogation, revealed that the stolen motorcycle had been concealed at a friend’s house,” says the officer.
At about 4 am, the police reached the location and recovered the stolen motorcycle. A smooth, silent operation.
Currently, the Ernakulam North police team is completing the formal procedures to seek custody of the two accused in judicial remand.