Man arrested by police on the basis of (representational) video surveillance footage
Kannur, Kerala:
Kerala officials, moved by the heartbreaking story of a man who robbed 600 rupees from a bank and escaped from prison, helped the 21-year-old migrant worker obtain bail and return home. family in Uttar Pradesh.
Hunger and love for mother prompted stuck migrant to steal meager amount, officials say
Stuck in a different state due to the lockout induced by the unemployed coronavirus, Ajay Babu was forced to beg on the street for his survival at some point. So it was a happy meeting for him when he arrived in his village in Hamirpur district of Uttar Pradesh on Monday afternoon, officials said.
This was made possible through the collective efforts of some good Samaritans from the Kerala prison department, a lawyer from Kasargod district and officials from the legal services authority who were sympathetic to the fate of the man, they declared.
He received 500 rupees and two pairs of dresses and was accommodated on a train bound for Delhi on Saturday from Kannur.
“Ajay Babu was received by his relatives at Jhansi station on Monday morning. I also have a video and photos of him joining his mother and other parents,” the prison superintendent told PTI special of Kannur, TK Janardhanan.
Faced with famine, Ajay Babu had entered a bank in the town of Kasargod in Kerala through his air vents and had withdrawn with Rs 600 from the cash register. He spent the money to buy food at a nearby restaurant and slept in the area because he did not even realize his crime.
He was arrested the following day on the basis of a video surveillance sequence and according to the COVID-19 protocol on March 25, he was lodged in an isolation room of the central prison of Kannur from where he escaped a week later because he wanted at all costs to find his phone seized by the police. so that he could speak to his mother, said the official.
He was then found lying unconscious near a railroad track by residents and was arrested again. During interrogation, he recounted his ordeals since arriving in Kerala in March, just before confinement in search of employment.
District prison authorities have taken steps to secure his release, subject to decongesting prisons due to the isolation of COVID-19, although three of their colleagues have been suspended and temporary staff dismissed after Ajay Babu s escaped from prison.
Hamirpur district police helped locate Ajay Babu’s home address, TK Janardhanan said, adding that his family managed to send 25,000 rupees online for the bond.
Lawyer Kumaran Nair, a reputed lawyer in the Kasargod district, offered free legal aid to Ajay Babu for obtaining bail in the bank robbery case while legal services authorities helped him obtain redress in prison escape case, allowing it to decongest prisons due to TK Janardhanan said that the locking up of COVID-19 and the release of those who were facing minor crimes
