Wayanad police station tobacco heist: Contraband recovered from accused cop's quarters
Stolen banned tobacco, weighing seven sacks, was recovered from police quarters near the station. A suspended officer, T Sabith, is accused of taking it, allegedly with external help. Investigations are ongoing.
Stolen banned tobacco, weighing seven sacks, was recovered from police quarters near the station. A suspended officer, T Sabith, is accused of taking it, allegedly with external help. Investigations are ongoing.
Stolen banned tobacco, weighing seven sacks, was recovered from police quarters near the station. A suspended officer, T Sabith, is accused of taking it, allegedly with external help. Investigations are ongoing.
Sulthan Bathery: The police team investigating the theft of seven sacks of banned tobacco products from the safe room of the Sulthan Bathery police station recovered the stolen contraband from the police quarters, about 500 metres from the station, during evidence collection with suspended Senior Civil Police Officer T Sabith on Saturday morning.
Sulthan Bathery DySP Abdul Karim, who is monitoring the investigation, told the media that the sacks were first shifted to the police quarters and subsequently transported to Kalpetta. They were later brought back to the police quarters on the advice of the accused's counsel. The police recovered the contraband from the quarters during evidence collection conducted in the presence of Sabith, he said.
According to the police, Sabith alone carried the sacks containing the tobacco products out of the safe room and loaded them into a vehicle. The police also suspect that he received assistance from an external racket, and its alleged role is being investigated.
The investigating team has obtained CCTV footage and recorded statements from witnesses that corroborate Sabith's involvement in the theft. During interrogation, Sabith also confessed to the crime, police said.
Sabith was arrested from Kalamassery in Kochi on September 20 and produced before the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court, Sulthan Bathery. On September 24, the court granted the police custody of Sabith for further interrogation and evidence collection until September 26. He is scheduled to be produced before the court again on Saturday as the custody period ends.
The police allege that Sabith obtained the keys to the safe room and removed the seized contraband in his car around midnight on July 19, when other police personnel were not present at the station. The circumstances surrounding how he accessed the room and the suspected involvement of persons outside the police department are being investigated.
The contraband had been earlier seized by police during a raid from the cellar of a house in Sulthan Bathery and deposited in the station's property room on June 26. As the property room was rarely opened, the theft came to light only on September 10, when police found that the seized tobacco products were missing.
On suspicion of leakage of information during the investigation, in an administrative shake-up, Wayanad District Police Chief S Devamanohar had ordered the transfer of 21 police personnel attached to Sulthan Bathery police station to other stations.