A police squad from the Thrissur East police agonisingly missed out on an absconding accused in a multi-crore investment scam from an apartment at Kadavanthra last Friday, it has emerged.
Praveen Rana, who ran an investment scheme, was wanted in 12 cases registered at the Thrissur East police station alone in a little over a week following petitions that he had cheated many people who had invested lakhs of rupees in what allegedly turned out to be a Ponzi scheme. More cases are being registered at various stations in Thrissur city as complaints continue to be filed.
Rana had gone missing on January 5 and duly switched off his mobile phone. A day after, a two-member squad from the Thrissur East police reached Kochi based on his last tower location.
The police covered nearly 70 apartments within a 5-km radius based on the tower location that day. Rana happened to be in one of those apartments but was fortunate to give them a slip, albeit unknowingly, since neither he nor the cops realised each other’s presence till it was too late, sources in the Thrissur police said.
“In fact, just minutes after Rana had come down from his apartment in a lift, the cops went up by the same lift. He could have been still at the parking lot when police personnel were asking around about his presence. They came to know about their misfortune only on checking the CCTV image, which showed how close they had come to grab him,” said sources.
The police shared the number of the vehicle, which…
