Thrissur: On April 5, a retired military officer boarded an auto from Thomas Puzhaykal in Karuvanpadi, Mannampet, to West Fort in an auto. Thomas got into an auto rickshaw with a loan of around Rs.1 lakh to buy his daughter’s long-cherished dream Scooty.
Mr. Thomas got out of the auto rickshaw in Westford and forgot the cash envelope, several sets of keys and the ATM card in the auto rickshaw. As soon as he realized that he had lost about Rs.1 lakh in the envelope, Mr. Thomas went to the West police station with a complaint. Sub-inspector Mr. KC Baiju had handed over the complaint to senior civil police officer Mr. Abhish Antony.
Mr. Abhishek Antony checked several CCTV footage of the scene to get a glimpse of Mr. Thomas landing in an auto rickshaw in West Fort. Finally, on a CCTV, he saw Mr. Thomas getting into an auto rickshaw. It was very difficult to find the auto rickshaw from the blurry scene. Mr. Abhishek Antony observed the scenes closely and examined many of the visible differences in the auto rickshaw. The writing of the Municipality Permission Number was spotted.
The vehicle was spotted driving through the yellow circle in the city. It was then that Mr. Abhishek Antony noticed an ad sticker on the back of the autorickshaw that was dropping Thomas back. A closer look at the sticker revealed that it was an advertisement for a jewelry store in the city.
The police officer immediately went to the jewelery shop and inquired about the vehicles for which the sticker had been given. The jewelers gave a list of around 100 vehicles. The list was handed over to Sub-Inspector Mr. K.C. Baiju. Mr. K.C. Baiju made a list of a few vehicles and immediately notified the vehicle owners to arrive at the station along with the vehicle and driver.
None of the vehicles that arrived first on the list could be found. A later inspection of the vehicles revealed that around Rs.1 lakh was lying in the back cover of an auto rickshaw. The auto rickshaw driver came to know about it when the police told him. The information was immediately reported to Mr. Thomas and Mr. Thomas arrived at the station. The bag and its contents were handed over to West Police Sub-Inspector Baiju Abhish.
He then handed over to Mr. Thomas in the presence of Mr. Anthony. Mr. Thomas returned from the police station happily thanking Mr. Abhishek Antony and other police officers who had worked hard to get the money.
Sub-inspector K.C. Baiju, Civil Police Officers Abhish Antony, City Police Camera Control Room Civil Police Officer Mr. Akhil OR, Mr. Abhibilai P. M, and Mr. Jitin Raj were also present.
