KOLLAM: Aadu Antony who has nearly 200 Police cases including murder, robbery, destruction of evidence, fake marriages, money swindling in the name of orphanages, and many more crimes to his (dis)credit hails from Kumbalam in Kollam.
Antony started his criminal career by stealing goats that gave him the name Adu (goat) Antony. He later specialised in stealing electronic goods including laptops and home appliances.
He was also punished several times for robbery. He came out of jail in 2008 and allegedly continued thefts in various station limits in and out of Kollam.
On the night of June 25, 2012, Aadu Antony was interrogated by ASI Joy of Parippally police Station after he was found in a car laden with different tools and weapons under suspicious circumstances. He allegedly stabbed the police driver Maniyan Pillai and the ASI before fleeing to become the most wanted criminal by the Kerala police.
Police arrested two of his wives Sreekala and Girija from a flat in Kannammoola in Thiru-vananthapuram that led the investigation team to Antony’s hideout in Adyar in Tamil Nadu.
The police team seized stolen electronic goods and computers worth lakhs from his flat in Adyar. Sreekala who was pregnant at the time of the arrest, later gave birth to a baby boy at the Thiruvananthapuram Central Jail.
After several months, police arrested his first wife Susan who is also the mother of Sreekala, from Shirdi in Maharashtra.
Antony had left Susan after an argument about his new affair with a woman from Kozhikode. The Police team also shadowed Susan for at least two months, but Antony was never trapped. According to police, Antony never used mobile phon-es which was another hindrance in the inquiry.
The police issued a look-out notice and announced a reward of Rs 1 lakh seeking information about Antony. Special stickers containing pictures of Aadu Antony were pasted inside trains and public places. Police also followed over 40 persons in and around the State who resembled Antony but those leads were inconclusive.
Former Kollam Police Commissioner who was in charge of the case used social media to collect information about the criminal through a Facebook page
‘Justice for Maniyan Pillai,’ started in the name of the Police driver allegedly killed by Antony.
Lookout for the man with many wives
Aadu Antony lived in several places across the country under various names and appearances. He also had women accompanying him wherever he went.
He lived with nearly 20 women including Susan, his first wife. He later married her daughter Sreekala too and has a son from that relationship.
The Police in search of Antony had to form special teams to follow his wives which led the investigation to his various hideouts in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Maharashtra.
The list of wives of Aadu Antony include Shaila from Wayanad, Angel Mary from Prakkanam , Susan and her daughter Sreekala from Ernakulam, Bindu from Palakkad, Soja from Thrissur, Smitha from Cherppu, Viji from Koz-hikkode, Soja from Kot-tayam, Kochumol from Maharashtra, Kumari from Kuzhithura in Tamil Nadu, and Girija from Kollam.
The Police is yet to find six of his other wives. According to Police, Antony is also the father of eight children from these wives.
Antony used to find women to marry through matrimonial advertisements he gave in newspapers. He would give different names and religions in newspapers under ‘remarriage’ column with different mobile numbers.
He trapped various families approaching them on the pretext that his wife had died and was left with few relatives.
Several wives who first opposed the lifestyle of Antony were later won over using the stolen “gifts” including gold ornaments and luxury goods he gave them.
