Drug smuggling case accused jumps off train near Aluva; drama ensues

KOCHI: The police arrested the accused who escaped with handcuffs by breaking the window of the toilet of the Bengaluru-Kanyakumari Express train. The accused suffered injuries after falling near the tracks while jumping from the train, but his valiant efforts ended up for nothing.

The Ernakulam Railway Police arrested Sabarinath (46) of Vaisakh House, Azhoor Perumkuzhi, Thiruvananthapuram, who is based in Bengaluru, suspected to be the kingpin behind smuggling drugs to Kerala. The Additional Chief Secretary of Home Affairs had permitted him to be kept in preventive detention under the PITNDPS Act. Subsequently, the Chirayinkeezhu police stayed in Bengaluru for several days and took him into custody from the hideout on Tuesday.

While being brought to Kerala by train, at 7.40 am on Wednesday, when the train was about to reach Aluva railway station, the accused asked to go to the washroom, citing stomach pain. After untying the handcuffs on his left hand, the police took him to the washroom. Minutes before the train was about to approach Aluva station, he moved the sliding glass of the washroom window and jumped out.

Sabarinath, who was lying near the track with an injured leg, hid the handcuffs on his right hand under his clothes. A railway employee saw him lying injured and took him to Ernakulam Medical College Hospital, thinking that he was a passenger. The accused, however, took an auto and moved to another private hospital.

Meanwhile, the police team, having learned that the accused had escaped, went to the station and started an investigation with the help of the Railway Police and the RPF. The police reached there after learning that he had gone to the Medical College Hospital. The auto driver was soon identified, and it helped track the accused. The accused was remanded in custody in the Thiruvananthapuram Central Jail.