Kannur Squad beats Arjun Ayanki at his own cat-and-mouse game

For 60 hours, Arjun Ayanki kept the Kannur Squad guessing in a cat-and-mouse chase until a crucial phone call finally blew his cover.

Ayanki spent two days holed up in Taliparamba at one of the safest hideouts he could have chosen. It was the base of a notorious political goon known to be close to him, and police had estimated that any night raid would require at least 40 personnel.

Ayanki had taken elaborate precautions to stay off the police radar, switching off his phone and having his associates put theirs on flight mode before taking him to the hideout. But painstaking tracking, sharp field intelligence and a crucial tip eventually helped the police close in on him.

Still active online
The investigation initially focused on Ayanki’s friends, political associates and relatives. When the police reached his house at Kappakadavu in Azhikkal and questioned his mother, she said he had not been home for months. The phone number known to the police had also remained switched off since August 5.

Investigators, however, discovered that Ayanki was still active on social media through Wi-Fi. Messages from him continued to appear in a WhatsApp group of his friends even as the search was underway. His final message to the group warned that the police might question them too and asked everyone to switch off their phones.

Piecing together his trail
Ayanki travelled by car from Kochi to Kappakadavu in Azhikkal on the night of August 5. The next day, he set out with friends Pranav and Jithin, alias Kuttan. When the two visited Mattannur, Thottada and Chalode, Ayanki accompanied them but stayed inside the car. Sensing that the police were closing in, he asked Pranav to keep his distance before moving to Taliparamba that same evening. Police later established that Kuttan and Pranav had taken him there.

Police questioned Kuttan on the morning of August 7, but he claimed he did not know where Ayanki had gone. The investigation appeared to hit another dead end after a Kochi police team took Kuttan and another associate, Akhil, into custody.

The Kannur team then retraced Kuttan’s movements and established that he had dropped Ayanki in Taliparamba, with Pranav accompanying him. Investigators next drew up a list of people Ayanki was likely to contact in the area and matched it with field intelligence gathered from Taliparamba. The trail eventually led them to the hideout.

Tactics to stay off the radar
Ayanki and his associates had worked out several ways to throw the police off the trail. Phones were put on flight mode while travelling to hideouts. Whenever they shifted locations, they avoided travelling directly to the new destination, first moving in another direction before changing course. Vehicles were also switched along the way.

While travelling from Taliparamba towards Payyannur on Wednesday, Ayanki reached Chudala, where he changed vehicles before heading towards Kannur.

Police have identified Ayanki’s relatives Pranav, Kuttan and Dipu as his key associates. The investigation was also complicated by pressure exerted by relatives and party workers whenever his associates were taken into custody.

The call that cracked the case
The breakthrough came around noon on August 8, when the Taliparamba inspector received a crucial phone call. By then, the search had been underway for 48 hours. The caller said a man resembling Ayanki had boarded an autorickshaw and later got into a car on the Chudala-Mathamanga road.

The lead took investigators to the house of a woman lawyer in Thalikavu, Kannur. Police surrounded the house at 2.15 am. The lawyer initially told them that Ayanki was not there, but the police refused to leave.

Ayanki was eventually taken into custody and brought to the Kannur Town police station at 3 am. After questioning was completed, he was taken to the Cyber Police Station, where his arrest was formally recorded.