Tattoo leads to arrest of robber missing for 15 years

The accused – identified as Armugam Pallaswami Devendra (63), a resident of Antop Hill – was arrested in 2008 for breaking inside a house in Sion-Koliwada.

Mumbai: A heart and a cross tattoo helped the cops arrest a robber who was on the run for around 15 years after getting bail in a house-breaking case.

Tattoo leads to arrest of robber missing for 15 years

The accused – identified as Armugam Pallaswami Devendra (63), a resident of Antop Hill – was arrested in 2008 for breaking inside a house in Sion-Koliwada, as per the police. Later, he stopped attending the trial court. The metropolitan magistrate court at Dadar had then issued several bailable and non-bailable warrants against him and finally declared him a proclaimed offender.

A team from the RAK Marg Police Station, which was trying to trace Devendra, was told that he was dead. “Later we also learnt he was somewhere in Tamil Nadu which motivated us to work further on the case. In an endeavour to trace him, our teams went to places in Kalyan, Mahim and Bhandup where he had stayed earlier, but got no clue about him,” Dr Pravin Munde, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Zone IV.

Munde added that while studying similar crimes, they learnt that there was a criminal with a similar first and middle name, but a different surname – Armugam Pallaswami Mudaliar.

“Further probe also revealed that apart from the first and the middle names, the two had one more thing in common, identification marks mentioned in the crime history sheet – a heart and cross tattoo on his hands, making it amply clear that these were not two different individuals, but one person, who had given his different surname in a subsequent case,” said Lamkhede.

The cops then visited the address mentioned in the subsequent crime details but did not find the accused there. The police said the accused had changed several addresses after he got bail. They, however, got his mobile number and started tracking it. “Mobile tracking showed that the accused was visiting tourist spots in the city like Gateway of India, Juhu and Bandra areas, indicating that perhaps he was working for a tourist firm,” said Lamkhede.

He added that after visiting several tourist firms, they found the accused was working as a driver and after identifying the tattoo on his hand, the cops arrested him.

Devendra has several cases registered against him in Bhandup, Sion, Antop Hill and also in Ahmedabad. He will be produced before the Dadar court on Friday.