Sulthan Bathery: The Judicial First Class Magistrate Court (JFCM)-I, Sulthan Bathery, on Thursday granted the police custody application and remanded suspended Senior Civil Police Officer T Sabith, accused of removing contraband tobacco products from the safe room of the Sulthan Bathery police station, to police custody till September 26.

The court also directed the investigation officers to complete the evidence-gathering procedures by then.

Sabith, who had been absconding since September 10, was taken into custody after a prolonged search by multiple police teams from his hideout near Kalamassery in Ernakulam district on Sunday morning  

According to the police, Sabith is yet to take the investigation team to the place where he allegedly concealed the contraband after transporting seven sacks of banned tobacco products from the police station on July 19. The seized material had been deposited in the property room on June 26. Since the room was rarely opened, the theft came to light only on September 10, when police found that the seized material was missing.

During an interview with a news channel from Kochi while he was on the run, Sabith had claimed that he had only shifted the seven sacks of contraband from the safe room to another location.

The police told the court that Sabith’s custodial interrogation was necessary as he had not yet disclosed where he allegedly concealed the contraband after taking it out of the police station. The investigators also want to ascertain whether others were involved in the alleged theft, trace the movement of the seized tobacco products and establish the modus operandi of the accused.

It is alleged that Sabith obtained the keys to the safe room and removed the seized contraband in his car around midnight on July 19, when no other police personnel were present at the station.

The seven sacks had been kept in the safe room after being seized by the police in an earlier operation against the illegal trade in banned tobacco products. The disappearance of the seized material came to light during a subsequent inspection, following which a special investigation team was constituted to trace the missing contraband and identify those responsible.

In an administrative shake-up, Wayanad District Police Chief S Devamanohar ordered the transfer of 21 police personnel attached to Sulthan Bathery police station to other stations

The police have also examined CCTV footage, station records and other evidence to establish the sequence of events surrounding the removal of the contraband from the police station.