Kollam: Youth on Blue Maestro Scooter Arrested in POCSO Case! Read Details

The Kollam Rural DANSAF team finally nabbed Lijo after checking over 400 CCTV clips. They tracked him down using descriptions from the kids and details of Maestro scooters registered across different districts.

Kollam: Police have arrested a man who rode around on a scooter and sexually assaulted school girls. The Kollam Rural DANSAF team caught Lijo Joseph, a resident of Cherumangad Kuzhiyil Puthenveedu near Puthoor Alaykka Junction. He rode a blue Maestro scooter across the district and targeted young students. Cops had been hunting for him for the last few months. The East Kallada and Sooranad police stations booked him under the strict POCSO Act for these attacks.

He mostly targeted girls walking alone on quiet bylanes. He smeared mud on his scooter's number plate or covered it up completely to avoid getting caught. The initial probe hit a dead end. Then, Kollam Rural District Police Chief Shaji Sugunan IPS stepped in. He formed a special squad led by the District DANSAF team. Sasthamcotta DySP Alexander Thankachan supervised this team. The team finally cracked the case and arrested Lijo. They tracked him down using the physical description shared by some kids. The cops also scanned over 400 CCTV footages and checked details of Maestro scooters registered in various districts.

The cops faced a tough time catching him. The CCTV cameras never captured his face clearly, and the scooter's number plate was always blurry. He also took random, confusing routes after committing the crime to throw the police off his track. The Kollam Rural DANSAF team conducted a massive ground check. They traveled across most areas in Pathanamthitta and Kollam districts. The team even checked the border areas of Thiruvananthapuram district. The police finally put him behind bars after this massive manhunt.