- RIYADH: An Indian worker has been released by police in Durmah, a town about 60 km west of the capital, after investigators found out that he was wrongly implicated in crimes committed by an identification thief.
The released man was identified as Mohideen Meethal Theruvil, from the south Indian city of Kozhikode.
He was arrested at a checkpoint on charges he did not return vehicles he had allegedly rented from two car rental agencies.
Although Theruvil, 37, pleaded innocent, police detained him and launched an investigation. The identity theft was discovered when police took him to the offices of the car rental companies to take evidence.
Theruvil, who came to work in the Kingdom 22 months ago as a truck driver, was cleared after the car rental agents told the police that he was not the person whom they had rented the vehicles. They provided the investigators photocopies of the iqama (work/residency permit) that was used to rent the vehicles. The iqama had Theruvil’s name and number but the photo showed a different person.
The date of the checkpoint arrest and the date of the subsequent release were not provided by the authorities.
Police are currently searching for the man in the photo.
Meanwhile, Theruvil says he is extremely concerned that there is a crook out there committing crimes in his name.
