KOCHI: An extensive search inside Mangalavanam forest area here was a strenuous task. Still, a 30-member police team carried out hours-long search on Sunday to arrest the two youths who allegedly broke into a high-end showroom at Aluva and decamped with two motorcycles costing around Rs 2 lakh each last week.
The duo’s luck ran out on Sunday after they accidentally came across a police team carrying out a vehicle checking in the city as part of lockdown. The youths were riding the stolen motorcycles. While checking vehicles on MG Road around 8.30am, Central station SI Vipin noticed two persons riding separate motorbikes with ‘for registration’ number plates rashly.
The officer grew suspicious as the photos of the suspects in the Aluva theft were circulated on the police’s online platforms. When the police tried to intercept them, the duo did not stop but headed in the direction of High Court junction. Finding the police hot on their heels, the youths moved towards Mangalavanam and tried to escape after abandoning the vehicles as the road ended there.
However, the police team caught up with them and managed to arrest one of them, while the other jumped over the wall and entered the forest. More policemen were called in and commenced a search in the entire forest.
The fleeing youth stepped into the Bharat Petroleum building near the forest. When he saw more officers coming towards the building, he fled to the nearby forest area and hid. The police then surrounded the whole forest. Sub-Inspector Anie Siva climbed onto the helipad of a nearby flat complex and found the accused hiding.
She passed on the information to Inspector of Police S Vijayashankar. Subsequently, Vijayashankar passed on the information to the policemen. When the police team cornered him, the accused attacked them with a stick and tried to escape but was nabbed.
Feroz Khan, 19, of Thattamala, Kollam, was the one who dodged the police by running into the forest, while the second accused was 19-year-old Amarjith of Chathamangalam in Kozhikode.
How it happened
30 police personnel encircle forest area after one of the robbers dodges officers by first running into green cover, then to nearby Bharat Petroleum building and again going into hiding in forest. When cornered, the robber attacks the police and tries to escape but is nabbed.