Known as the Robin Hood of Bihar, 34-year-old Mohammed Irfan was caught by Kochi police, hours after a burglary he committed at an upscale Kochi neighbourhood of Panampally, which he zeroed in on after Googling “posh areas in Kochi”.
Armed with just a screwdriver, he unsuccessfully tried to break into two houses around midnight, but on his third try, he emerged with gold and diamond jewellery worth around Rs 1 crore.
What he didn’t know at the time was that the house belonged to renowned Malayalam movie director Joshiy, whose 2009 film Robin Hood, starring Prithviraj Sukumaran, also told the story of a clever thief.
Kochi police tracked him to Karnataka’s Udupi, where the local police detained him. He was then brought back to Kochi, and a magistrate court sent him to police custody for three days.
Kochi City Police Commissioner S Syamsundar said police were able to track him after his vehicle, with Maharashtra registration, was spotted by an automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) camera installed in the city.
“He used a screwdriver to break into the house through a window without crossbars. The safe at the house was open, so it was easy for him to take the ornaments,” he said. “He uses only a screwdriver… his car did not have any weapon when it was seized in Udupi. As per our information, Irfan is involved in 19 cases in six states. He had been jailed on a few occasions, most recently in Goa,” the commissioner said.
At his native Garha Jogia village in Pupri area of Bihar’s Sitamarhi district, Irfan is known to engage in social service by helping the poor with wedding expenses and medical bills.
According to local residents, he has also helped repair roads and drains at several villages, and served as the mukhiya of Pupri’s Manikpur Mushaharniya panchayat between 2016 and 2021. In 2021, his wife was elected to the Zila Parishad from Pupri.
“Irfan faced several cases of gold theft in other states, but he was not involved in any major case in Bihar. He used to sell jewellery at the local level,” a Sitamarhi police officer said.
Ahead of his burglary in Kochi, Irfan drove to the city from Bihar in a car that was marked “District Panchayat President”.
Kochi’s Deputy Commissioner of Police, KS Sudarsan, said that after the theft was reported to the local police station, police got a blurry CCTV image of a car in the locality.
“Later, an ANPR camera in the city provided the car number… Further investigation showed that the particular car had crossed the Kerala-Karnataka border at Thalappady near Mangalore at 2.25 pm the next day. On being alerted by Kerala police, the Karnataka police waylaid the car at Kota, near Udupi,” he said.
The DCP said Irfan left Bihar a week ago, and reached Kochi just hours before the burglary. His car had passed the toll plaza in Thrissur, around 80 kilometres from Kochi, at 11.20 pm. “He was involved in another theft in Thiruvananthapuram in 2021. Police had identified him as the culprit, but at the time, he could not be arrested,” he said.
Sudarsan said the police would question Irfan to ascertain whether he had local support. “There was no particular reason for targeting Joshiy’s house. He had made two unsuccessful attempts in the same area that night before the attempt at Joshiy’s house,’’ the DCP said.
Aslo Read: Air Pollution Linked To Higher Risk Of Sleep Apnea
