Covid bail loophole helps burglar escape cop net

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A city police team that went to Goa to arrest an inter-state burglar accused of stealing valuables from the house of Bhima Jewellers chairman B Govindan had to return empty handed after the suspect fled Panaji by obtaining a conditional bail.Mohammed Irfan, who went by the moniker ‘Robinhood’, had landed in Goa police custody by May first week in connection with a theft case. The incident soon came to the notice of the state police after they stumbled on a press release issued by Panaji police. After two weeks, when the cops landed in Panaji on Saturday to bring him back, Irfan had gone.

He had made good using the Supreme Court verdict on release of remand prisoners accused of non-grievous crimes to de-congest prisons and obtained a conditional bail to flee from the Kerala Police. Though the police stayed on for a few more days planning various ways to nab him, Irfan simply stayed away from their radar. 

Cantonment Assistant Commissioner K Sadan said the police had faced issues in travelling to Goa due to Covid-related restrictions and lockdown and that’s why they could not reach there before Irfan obtained bail. “Due to Covid scenario he immediately got bail. There was a communication lacunae between Goa cops and us as both were vigorously engaged in Covid duty. So we did not get much information from our Goa counterparts during this period,” he said. Though the news of Irfan’s escape came as an embarrassment, the police maintain that their visit to Goa has provided them information on the theft at Govindan’s place on April 14.

Police sources said Irfan had confessed to the crime during the interrogation by Goa police and the confession statement was accessed by the touring cops. Also, they obtained the fingerprints of Irfan and that will be compared with the prints gathered by the fingerprint experts from the crime spot. 

The Assistant Commissioner said the confession statement has thrown light on the modus operandi of Irfan.”He operated alone and without the help of much equipment. He always struck at posh residences. In the house of the jeweller, he did not use any sophisticated devices to break in,” the officer said.

The police have also ascertained that Irfan had travelled by car to Kerala. “He did not fly and that was revealed during our examination of flight details,” the officer added. The Museum police by then had managed to obtain a face shot of the accused from the CCTV cameras that was shared on various social media