It was an ordinary working day at the Ernakulam District Court. Advocates in black suits and gowns hurried across the corridors with stacks of case files, while the public and visitors filled the premises for various legal purposes. In addition, police personnel were stationed at the court complex for security, including officers assigned to escort duty. Amid this busy routine, taps and pipe fittings within the court restrooms vanished in broad daylight — for the umpteenth time.
A detailed probe by a special team — led by the Ernakulam central assistant commissioner Sibi Tom, and inspector Aneesh Joy of the Ernakulam Central Police Station, sub-inspector Anoop Chacko, and CPOs Pasanth Babu, Unnikrishnan, and Hareesh — eventually unraveled the whole incident, leading to the arrest of the accused, Shajahan Abubacker, aka Shajan, 48), a resident of Kollam Cantonment.
The series of incidents began on November 11, when the first theft inside the Ernakulam district court complex came to light. A staff member noticed unusual water leakage from a washroom on the ground floor. Upon inspection, officials found that several taps had gone missing — confirming that this was not a plumbing failure, but a theft.
Within hours, similar complaints emerged from the sixth-floor washrooms, where more taps and pipe fittings were found missing. Court authorities immediately alerted the police, and a formal investigation was launched.
However, the matter gained gravity exactly a week later, on November 18, when another round of thefts occurred. This time, taps and fittings disappeared not only from the ground-floor restrooms but also from washrooms on other less-crowded floors.
The repeated incidents, all during working hours in a high-security environment, raised serious concerns. Soon, the police constituted a special investigation squad under the direct supervision of the ACP , and what followed was a meticulous probe that eventually unraveled the entire operation.
“The preliminary investigation showed that the thefts were consistently carried out on Tuesdays, and the suspect deliberately avoided the restrooms located on the floor where the Chief Judicial Magistrate and other judges have their chambers. We also identified a man entering multiple washrooms in the CCTV footage, following which we prepared a surveillance plan to trap him during his next attempt,” says an officer with the probe team.
“Accordingly, on the following Tuesday (November 25), we deployed officers in plainclothes across the court premises, anticipating the suspect’s return. However, our plans were disrupted as he did not appear that day, likely due to the unusually heavy crowd related to the proceedings in the sensational actor-abduction case,” he says.
“Expecting that he might make another attempt the very next day, we maintained our surveillance — and as anticipated, Shajan arrived. He walked straight into our trap and was taken into custody. His arrest was formally recorded thereafter,” the officer added.
Adding further, an officer with the special squad said that the thefts were executed after shutting off the main valve of the water pipe leading to the restrooms.
“During the interrogation, Shajan confessed to thefts in other places, including Thiruvananthapuram Medical College, and the stolen taps were sold in Kottayam. He also revealed that he committed the thefts to obtain money for alcohol,” says the officer.
A source with Kochi city police states that Shajahan is an accused in several theft cases, and had previously been arrested by the Thiruvananthapuram Police in a mobile phone theft case and spent six months in jail. He was released two months ago after completing his sentence and has since been staying in Ernakulam.