KOCHI: We may have heard of cases in which hardcore criminals mislead the police to torpedo the investigation. But what unfolded in Munnambam near Vypeen was out of the ordinary. A 16-year-old had taken the cops on a ride for nearly two weeks before admitting that she had faked her abduction and assault just to convince her boyfriend to ‘get closer’.
Last month, North Paravoor Station House Officer (SHO) informed Munambam Deputy Superintendent of Police M K Murali that a school-going girl had been abducted. The matter came to light when her boyfriend received a video wherein the girl was seen tied at a construction site. He shared the video with the girl’s mother, who approached the police.
As the building was identified quickly, officers rescued the girl. “The same day, we recorded her statement and registered a case at Munambam police station. She told us that a drone had spotted a drone flying near her house and, when she went out for a better look at it, four masked people abducted her,” says Murali.
The girl hinted that a person she had befriended on Instagram might have been behind her abduction. Soon, officers made a list of suspects after speaking with the family members. “We questioned all of them. We checked their histories, mobile tower locations and cyber activities. No one had any link to the case,” says Murali.
A breakthrough remained elusive even after three days. The girl’s father had some political affiliation, and a party even planned a police station march. Four days after the abduction incident, when the family members were not at home, a person wearing a mask broke into the girl’s house and attacked her.
“The incident happened when we were probing the case. We knew that this could only worsen the situation. So I went to the girl’s house. However, on seeing the boundary wall, it struck me that a normal person could not scale such a high wall. Even my team members struggled to do so. I grew suspicious,” Murali recalls.
Following an intuition from the experience of probing numerous sensational cases in his police career, Murali decided to study the wounds suffered by the girl. “Bandages were applied by then. The girl told us that the accused had struck her with a knife. Once we opened the bandage, it was immediately clear that the wound was only a minor one and definitely not caused by a knife,” the officer adds.
In a few days, we also got a report from the Cyber Cell, which had analysed the Instagram account of the person who the girl had accused. “The report revealed that the Instagram ID was created from the mobile phone of the girl’s mother. We decided to question the girl again,” says Murali.
After the officers presented the evidence, the girl spilt out the truth. “She had a boyfriend who distanced from her for some weeks. She planned the entire drama to bring him close again. The video of the abduction was, apparently, recorded with the help of her brother, who also admitted the same,” says Murali.
Even though the police had lost two weeks running behind this case, they decided not to take any action against the girl. “Since she was a teenager, we did not want to give her any trouble. However, we advised the family to consult a counsellor,” says Murali. “The case is closed.”