Man arrested for stealing lottery tickets from blind vendor in Thiruvananthapuram
Thiruvananthapuram: Police on Saturday arrested a man on charges of stealing lottery tickets from a blind vendor thanks to CCTV captures from the central depot at Thampanoor shared on WhatsApp on Friday.
The cops identified him as Sunil Kumar (42) of Chyambakara of Marad involved in many theft cases registered in various stations in Thiruvananthapuram and Ernakulam districts and also in Railway police station.
He was roaming around the Overbridge Junction when local persons who had seen visuals on the CCTV interrupted and handed him over to the police.
He was remanded to judicial custody after questioning. Mr Kumar, who was an employee of a toddy shop, had spent six months in jail as an accused in the Kalluvathukkal liquor tragedy of 2000. He was also remanded in connection with the death of his wife after the explosion of a gas cylinder. He was also an accused in three cases of thefts in trains.
The theft occurred on Saturday afternoon when he stole 23 lottery tickets worth Rs 640 from Suran of Chirayanikara Geetha Bhavan of Vellarada. There have been incidents of lottery theft from blind sellers in the past also.
The visuals of the theft were recorded on the CCTV of the KSFE branch inside the KSRTC complex. The police released this video on Friday evening on its Facebook page, which went viral on social media.
Mr Kumar arrived at the spot when another person wearing a brown T-shirt was purchasing tickets from Mr Suran. He was wearing blue jeans and a striped T-Shirt with white, light blue and black colours with a mobile phone in his hand and a bag in the shoulders.
He had taken a bunch of lottery tickets from Mr Suran. He waited for counting them until the other person left the scene after purchasing the tickets.
After that, he left the scene after viewing the surroundings. Suran first thought that the person had gone to get change from the nearby shops as it was a practice with many customers who bought lottery tickets. However, as he did not return after a long time, he approached the police.
After he was arrested, two other blind persons selling lotteries approached the police with the same complaints. He sells the stolen lotteries in Shanghumugham area.
