Having pushed all the best way to Kerala, Mohammed Irfan (34), identified in his state because the Robin Hood of Bihar, reached the upscale neighbourhood of Panampally, which he zeroed in on after Googling “posh areas in Kochi”.
Armed with only a screwdriver, he unsuccessfully tried to interrupt into two homes round midnight on Friday, however on his third strive, he emerged with gold and diamond jewelry price round Rs 1 crore.
What he didn’t know on the time was that the home belonged to famend Malayalam film director Joshiy, whose 2009 movie Robin Hood, starring Prithviraj Sukumaran, additionally informed the story of a intelligent thief.
Irfan was arrested inside 15 hours of the housebreaking, with the Kochi police monitoring him to Karnataka’s Udupi, the place the native police detained him. On Monday, he was introduced again to Kochi, and a Justice of the Peace courtroom despatched him to police custody for 3 days.
Kochi Metropolis Police Commissioner S Syamsundar mentioned police have been capable of monitor him after his automobile, with Maharashtra registration, was noticed by an computerized quantity plate recognition (ANPR) digital camera put in within the metropolis.
“He used a screwdriver to interrupt into the home by way of a window with out crossbars. The secure on the home was open, so it was straightforward for him to take the ornaments,” he mentioned. “He makes use of solely a screwdriver… his automotive didn’t have any weapon when it was seized in Udupi. As per our data, Irfan is concerned in 19 circumstances in six states. He had been jailed on a couple of events, most just lately in Goa,” the commissioner mentioned.
At his native Garha Jogia village, within the Pupri space of Bihar’s Sitamarhi district, Irfan is thought to interact in social service by serving to the poor with marriage ceremony bills and medical payments.
In line with native residents, he has additionally helped restore roads and drains at a number of villages, and served because the mukhiya of Pupri’s Manikpur Mushaharniya panchayat between 2016 and 2021. In 2021, his spouse was elected to the Zila Parishad from Pupri.
“Irfan confronted a number of circumstances of gold theft in different states, however he was not concerned in any main case in Bihar. He used to promote jewelry on the native degree,” a Sitamarhi police officer mentioned.
Forward of Friday night time’s housebreaking in Kochi, Irfan drove to the town from Bihar in a automotive that was marked “District Panchayat President”.
Kochi’s Deputy Commissioner of Police, Okay S Sudarsan, mentioned that after the theft at director Joshiy’s home was reported to the native police station on Saturday morning, police received a blurry CCTV picture of a automotive within the locality.
“Later, an ANPR digital camera within the metropolis supplied the automotive quantity… Additional investigation confirmed that the actual automotive had crossed the Kerala-Karnataka border at Thalappady close to Mangalore at 2.25 pm on Saturday. On being alerted by the Kerala police, the Karnataka police waylaid the automotive at Kota, close to Udupi,” he mentioned.
The DCP mentioned Irfan left Bihar per week in the past, and reached Kochi simply hours earlier than the housebreaking. His automotive had handed the toll plaza in Thrissur, round 80 kilometres from Kochi, at 11.20 pm on Friday. “He was concerned in one other theft in Thiruvananthapuram in 2021. Police had recognized him because the perpetrator, however on the time, he couldn’t be arrested,” he mentioned.
Sudarsan mentioned the police would query Irfan to establish whether or not he had native help. “There was no specific purpose for focusing on Joshiy’s home. He had made two unsuccessful makes an attempt in the identical space that night time earlier than the try at Joshiy’s home,’’ the DCP mentioned.