Matchmaker helped police connect dots in ATM cash heist

It was a matchmaker from Banaswadi who was instrumental in bringing Dominic Selvaraj Roy and Evelyn Mary Roy to the police station. In fact, the matchmaker had facilitated their marriage.

The matchmaker also happens to be a police informant. Roy called him up on November 23 for the first time in the last two years. He was in constant touch with the matchmaker, trying to know if the police were following him.

“We questioned the couple’s relatives and friends and verified their phone call details. The matchmaker had received a call from Roy. We got in touch with him and monitored the couple’s movements through him,” DCP (West) M N Anucheth told DH.

Roy called him up thrice from coin phone booths at Irinjalakuda (Kerala), Coimbatore and Salem (Tamil Nadu).

He called up the matchmaker at 4.30 pm on November 28 (Monday) from Salem, informing him that he would reach Bengaluru by 8.30 pm. Based on the informant’s inputs, the police waited near the Tin factory till 10 pm, but Roy did not turn up. Another team was sent to advocate Nancy Prince’s house at around 11 pm, but there was no trace of him.

“He alighted from a bus at Tin Factory stop around midnight. The police detained him within seconds. Roy’s was a soft detention,” the DCP said.

“We brought him to the Upparpet police station. We asked Evelyn to come before Dominic. He was shocked, as he did not know that the police had already arrested her,” Anucheth said.

Dominic’s elder brother Harris resides at Lingarajapuram. The police handed over the couple’s 12-year-old son to the custody of Harris’ wife. The police analysed the Reverse Call Detail Record - of all outgoing numbers to receivers abroad - to gather clues.

The police had the phone number of Agnes, Evelyn’s mother, who stays in Dubai. Due to legal constraints, the police could not get the call details of Agnes. So, they shared her number with eight service providers in India, asking them to provide information about calls to her number from India. Roy had called Agnes from a landline phone on November 23.

The police got in touch with Agnes and through her, contacted two of her sisters in Hyderabad and Vijayawada. The police warned the two against helping the couple. The couple had to fall in line as Evelyn’s aunts refused to help them.