KOCHI: This case reminds one of the Oscar-winning ‘Slumdog Millionaire’, in which some misguided youths get sucked into the underbelly of a metro city, straight into the vortex of crime. Three teenagers, including a minor, were recently nabbed for stealing electric scooters parked at households at the behest of a workshop owner in Chendamangalam on the outskirts of Kochi.
In June, the Vadakkekara police station in Chendamangalam received multiple complaints of electric scooters getting stolen from houses. Officers wondered why e-scooters, in particular, were being targeted. “Four two-wheelers were stolen from the area around that time. Among them, three were electric scooters, and one was a motorcycle,” recalls an officer.
“We noted that the stolen e-scooters were of the low-capacity category, which do not require registration. These scooters are also exempt from road tax and insurance.” A team led by Station House Officer Soorej V C first made a list of e-scooter users in the area. They noted that a teenager, who hailed from a financially struggling family, was zipping through the vicinity on an e-scooter.
Then, the officers thoroughly reviewed footage from all CCTV units in the area. “We zeroed in on two youngsters who were pushing a scooter down the road at night. We identified one of the youngsters in the footage – it was the teenager whom we had noted earlier,” says the officer.
Subsequently, the police arrested three individuals: Minsal (18), Sooraj alias Vichu (20), and a minor boy. They confessed to the crimes, and during grilling, revealed that one Varghese Paul (28) of Chendamangalam was the mastermind behind the thefts. “Varghese was the one who coerced these youths to steal two-wheelers. He operates a two-wheeler workshop near his home. The stolen vehicles are extensively altered at his workshop,” the officer adds.
Varghese had scouted the Chendamangalam area to identify electric scooters for theft. He checked for guard dogs and CCTV units on the premises of the houses he targeted. He also coached the youths on how to unlock the scooters and whisk them away at night. The stolen vehicles were taken to Varghese’s workshop, where they were repainted and sold to others.
Surprisingly, some scooters were sold for as little as Rs 5,000, and Varghese paid each youngster Rs 500 for their missions. “They targeted low-capacity electric scooters due to the rising demand for such vehicles,” the officer says. “Since there is no registration process, all they needed to do was change the colour of the scooters before selling them. We recovered all the stolen vehicles.”
Officers believe that similar to ‘Slumdog Millionaire’, familial woes and peer influences of these youngsters led them into illegal activities. “One of the accused came from a broken family. All of them came from underprivileged backgrounds,” the officer says.