Thiruvananthapuram: The police have nabbed a habitual offender hailing from Khammam in Andhra Pradesh who travelled regularly to Kerala by flight to carry out thefts here and flew back to his home state.
According to the Thiruvananthapuram City Police, the man identified as Sambathy Uma Prasad (32) was arrested based on CCTV visuals as soon as he landed at the city airport early on Wednesday.
As part of an investigation into some mysterious thefts in the Kerala capital, the police examined visuals obtained from the CCTV cameras in those spots. The visuals led the police to an autorickshaw driver, which proved to be a breakthrough in the case. The auto driver informed the police about the hotel where he had dropped the suspect.
Police officers soon obtained the name and address of the suspect from hotel records. They also learnt that the suspect, Prasad, had arrived in Thiruvananthapuram by flight on May 28 this year and visited the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple and some tourist places. After leaving Thiruvananthapuram, he visited the city again on June 2 and toured several spots, before returning to Andhra Pradesh.
On June 6, Prasad made another visit to Thiruvananthapuram by air and carried out three robberies in places under the Fort and Pettah police stations. Later, on July 1, he went back to Andhra.
Further investigation revealed that Prasad had booked the ticket on a flight for yet another trip to Thiruvananthapuram. Early on Wednesday, Prasad landed at Thiruvananthapuram Airport and was arrested by the City Police.
The police also recovered some of the items he had stolen from under the Chackai bridge.
“Around 60,000 CCTVs are linked to the data bank of the police. Visuals from these cameras led us to the accused. We also received good support from autorickshaw drivers and hotel staff,” said City Police Commissioner C H Nagaraju.
History-sheeter with penchant for gold
Uma Prasad is a history-sheeter with numerous cases against him in Khammam. He mainly robbed gold, which was pawned in shops in Andhra, said the police.
During robberies, Prasad wore a cap, banian and shorts. He also used a hooded mask and gloves. All his thefts had a similar pattern. He carried a rod to break window grills and a cutter. He roamed around residential areas during the daytime and identified locked houses. While breaking into a house, Prasad switched off the CCTVs and took away the storage box.
Curiously, Prasad had also attempted to scale Mount Everest some years ago!
