KOCHI: A recent robbery case in Aluva left police officers quite flummoxed. At about 11.45pm on June 5, a four-member gang trespassed into the house of Sanjay D, a Maharashtra-native jewellery maker settled in Aluva. The trespassers claimed to be income tax officers, showing fake id cards. They confined Sanjay’s wife and son on the ground floor, and instructed them to not use mobile phones during the ‘raid’.
Sanjay guided the ‘officers’ to the money and gold stored in the house -- Rs 1.8 lakh and 394g of gold worth Rs 19 lakh kept in the almirah in a bedroom. The men ‘confiscated’ Sanjay’s passbooks, cheque books, PAN card, and insurance and income tax documents, too. Then, they removed the DVR attached to the CCTV camera fixed in the house, and destroyed evidence.
The mastermind of the ‘raid’, Haris P K, 52, of Kannur, pulled off a near-perfect heist. But he underestimated the Kerala Police. After scooting from Kochi, Haris had been hopping from one hideout to the other across New Delhi, Chennai, and various parts of Maharashtra.
He was careful to not switch on his phone so as to avoid digital tracking. Haris had destroyed all cyber evidence that could help the police trace his location. He had, in fact, removed the hard disk of the CCTV installed at his house in Kannur, as the gang had gathered here before and after the robbery. However, before switching off his handset, Haris had sent voice messages via WhatsApp to his wife. “We cracked these clips,” says an officer.
“He had informed her the operation was over. Later, his wife sent a message saying the police had not traced fingerprints from the crime scene, so the probe would not lead to him.” Next, the probe team traced his email account. “That was the turning point,” says the officer. “He was using emails to communicate with his accomplices. So, we got to know about his whereabouts.”
However, Haris kept changing his location. He evaded arrest for about three months, before being picked up from his home in Kannur on September 11.
One of his emails had hinted about returning home. A large posse of police personnel surrounded the 4,000sq.ft house, and nabbed him from underneath his bedroom cot. Seven persons, including his wife Suhara, and two Goa residents also have been arrested so far, says an officer.
The police have recovered the cash from Haris, while the stolen gold is still missing.