In a first-of-its-kind move since its successful re-emergence last year, the official Facebook page of the Kerala Police on Friday afternoon posted the CCTV footage of a theft at Palarivattom, in an effort to identify the accused with the help of the public.
The less-than-a-minute-long CCTV grab, which was posted at 4.56 p.m., evoked over 30,000 views, 1,200 likes, nearly 550 comments, and over 700 shares in just about an hour. The grab shows a partly bald man in full sleeve shirt, pants, and gloves moving around surreptitiously in a room filled with boxes.
The post accompanying the video said it was of a theft in a sanitaryware firm at Palarivattom and shared the telephone numbers of the Palarivattom police station and the investigation officer to pass on information.
“Though we had extended CCTV footage, we edited select portions with greater probability to help identify the accused. It is for the first time that we are posting such a thing to our official Facebook page to trace the accused. It has evoked great response. We plan to continue with the trend on a case-to-case basis,” said officials handling the social media wing of the police.
Around ₹1.10 lakh was stolen from the distribution centre of a sanitaryware company on South Janata Road in the theft that had reportedly taken place in the midnight of April 7. The Palarivattom police had registered a case under IPC Sections 457 (Lurking house-trespass or house-breaking by night in order to commit offence punishable with imprisonment), 380 (theft in dwelling, housing etc.), and 461 (dishonestly breaking open receptacle containing property).
It was on the request of P.S. Sreejesh, Palarivattom Inspector and investigating officer in the case, that the CCTV grab was posted on the police Facebook page. “I remain confident that it will have the desired impact, and that we will be able to zero in on the accused,” he said. It is quite common for law enforcement agencies across the world to reply on its social media reach to crack cases, sources said.