Earlier this week, a youngster nabbed for alleged chain-snatching had a cat-and-mouse game with the city police for a few hours after he managed to escape custody.
He gave the cops a slip just before he was to be lodged in a detention centre alongside the Hill Palace station where he was to be kept till he was remanded. He was caught shortly thereafter.
With crimes, which had plummeted unprecedented during the lockdown, gradually making a comeback, the police are stretched now that they have to resume normal enforcement activities alongside the added responsibilities associated with the transportation and quarantine of people returning from outside the State and abroad.
But gone are the days when they could simply nab the accused, produce them before the court and throw them behind the bars.
In the new normal post COVID-19, accused hardly ever see the police station. Instead, they are kept at sub divisional detention centres.
Mattancherry, Ernakulam and Thrikkakara subdivisions within the city police limits have a detention centre each so as Perumbavoor, Aluva and Muvattupuzha subdivisions in rural limits. Besides, there is a district detention centre for remand prisoners at Karukutty.
“Separate rooms or buildings not part of regular police stations serve as sub divisional detention centres. Interrogation, if any, will be held at these centres and they will be produced before the magistrate through videoconferencing or WhatsApp video call,” said G. Poonguzhali, Deputy Commissioner (Law and Order), Kochi City.
Prisoners remanded are lodged at the district detention centre guarded by the police. They are then taken to the Aluva General Hospital, which is designated for testing remand prisoners for COVID-19. They will be sent to prison if their tests return negative and to Government Medical College, Kalamasserry, if tested positive.
“There are standing instructions from the courts to avoid arresting offenders involved in crimes entailing a prison term of less than seven years except when inevitable. We are largely avoiding arrests on bailable charges as the accused will still have to be brought to the station for completing bail formalities,” said K. Karthik, District Police Chief (Ernakulam Rural).
He said that sub divisional detention centres were being operated with minimum staff, mostly a Sub Inspector alone, so that police personnel forced to undergo quarantine in the event of contact with an infected accused could also be kept to minimum.