Wanted Indian fugitive could even get a work permit in
Singapore.
February 24th, 2013 | Author: Online Press
(19 Feb) – Sreenesh Thaikkodathil Sreedharan, wanted for the
murder of a trader, flew to Tiruchy airport from Singapore to
escape notice. He even chucked his passport into a toilet dustbin
aboard, but city police were ready and waiting
The Air India Express flight from Singapore touched
Tiruchirappalli Airport on Friday and Sreenesh Thaikkodathil
Sreedharan, wanted in a murder case, thought freedom was a walk out
of the airport. He chucked his passport (G2803624) in a toilet bin
aboard the aircraft so that there wouldn’t be a whiff of his
identity. However, he hadn’t bargained for a wily Bangalore police
lying in wait for him and walked right into their trap a la a
Hollywood crime thriller.
Wanted for the cold-blooded murder of a cosmetics trader at
Hotel Pai Viceroy on J C Road (see box), 30-year-old Sreedharan, a
native of Calicut, had fled to Malaysia before settling down in
Singapore. However, he soon ran into trouble in Singapore for
overstaying on a tourist visa. But, he produced a work permit and
sought the court’s permission to stay on. The court asked him to go
back to India and return on the work visa.
Bangalore police, meanwhile, wasn’t exactly napping on the job.
They had managed to track down his girlfriend, a call centre
employee working in Whitefield. They put her under surveillance and
learnt about the visa problem. They took his girlfriend into
confidence and when he told her that he did not have money to buy
an air ticket, police arranged a ticket for him and mailed it
through her.
To escape from a lookout circular issued against him, Sreedharan
insisted on landing at the lesser known Tiruchirappalli airport in
Tamil Nadu, confident that he could give authorities the slip.
However, police was not letting him escape this time. Unknown to
him, they sent a person to Singapore to fly back with him on the
same aircraft without his knowledge. And a team of police officers
waited for him at the airport.
Sensing that things could go wrong at the immigration counter,
Sreedharan dumped his passport in the toilet dustbin. When asked to
produce his passport, he told immigration authorities that he may
have misplaced it in Singapore after the immigration check. When
Bangalore police tried to take him into custody, he pretended that
he was not the person they were looking for. However, Bangalore
police, who were sure of his identity, told immigration authorities
to check the aircraft he had arrived in.
A message was sent to the flight captain. As the flight was
about to take off to Chennai, immigration authorities ran across
the runway to stop the flight. Flight crew checked the passengers’
seat and toilet and found a passport chucked in the toilet dustbin.
They handed it over to immigration authorities. The passport
details tallied with the lookout notice issued against him. He was
taken into custody and brought to Bangalore under maximum
security.
The entire operation was supervised by joint commissioner of
police, crime (west) Pronab Mohanthy who had earlier worked in the
CBI and assistant commissioner of police G B Kowri.
Police commissioner B G Jyothiprakash Mirji rewarded the
policemen who were part of the operation during a press conference
on Monday.
Oh! TCH bo chor gang!
