Police to streamline collection of information on migrant labourers

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A spurt in cases involving other-state criminals has prompted the city police to strengthen intelligence collection at the grass-root level. Before the Covid outbreak, the police department had a mechanism to prepare a list of people, mostly labourers, from other states.Though the list was not exhaustive, it helped the police to some extent identify the black sheep among the migrant population. Now, after a rise in the involvement of other-state men in several sensational criminal cases, the police have decided to bring back the pre-Covid system and enhance it further.

In February this year, a Tamil Nadu native had murdered a woman near Ambalamukku while a West Bengal native was held earlier this month for the murder of a 68-year-old woman near Kesavadasapuram. The immediate trigger for the police decision, however, was Monday’s broad day-light thefts and pointing of gun at the police by suspected North Indian robbery gang in the city.

City Commissioner G Sparjan Kumar said the department is returning to the pre-Covid days in terms of collection of data on migrant workers, who have suspicious background. “We are going to further streamline the system that we had in place before the Covid pandemic. It’s very important to do that,” he said.

Another senior officer of the city police said hotel owners and residents’ associations will be sensitised on the need to share information of people with suspicious character to the police.Meanwhile, the Museum police have revealed that four people belonging to the North Indian gang were present in the city, with one of them identified. Monish, a resident of Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh, was one of the two persons who had trained a gun at a policeman near Vanchiyoor. Monish had been living in the city with a woman, suspected to be his wife, for the past one month. They first lived at a lodge near Vanchiyoor, from July 24 to 31, and later shifted to a rented house near Kaithamukku.

The police said the suspect was living disguised as a cloth and blanket seller. After the theft on Monday, the woman left the place with another person, reportedly a member of the gang. The gang members reportedly showered money on people, who had inadvertently helped them without understanding their scheme.

“They had taken a two-wheeler on rent from a shop near Kovalam. An autorickshaw driver, who they had met at the beach, showed them the shop. They paid the shop owner the full amount as rent before leaving the place,” a police officer said. According to the police, Monish had no criminal cases against him in Kerala.“He seems to have no criminal records here. Maybe he was involved in cases, but they could have gone undetected,” said the officer.