Thursday, June 30, 2005
Suspect escapes right under cop’s noses while in court
By Karlon N. Rama
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
A ruckus erupted inside the Palace of Justice yesterday afternoon as a man being brought to the Office of the Cebu City Prosecutor for an illegal possession of firearm charge escaped from his police escorts.
Elements of the Cebu City Police Office’s Mobile Patrol Group tried to run after Nanik “Nikki” Shewakram, 38, after he fled about 5 p.m.
Nanik was cuffed to another detainee while being brought to the Office of the City Prosecutor, located at the ground floor of the Palace of Justice.
But as Nanik’s papers were processed, the handcuff was unshackled from the other prisoner who had to be brought to one of the Regional Trial Court salas on the second floor.
Nanik took his chance to flee.
Disturbance
Although Acting City Prosecutor Nicolas Sellon approved the filing of a criminal case for grave threats against him, Nanik had yet to be arrested as of press time.
Nanik, who lives with his wife in Consolacion, Cebu, was picked up by elements of the Mobile Patrol Group outside his parents’ house on Sepulveda St. Tuesday midnight, after his parents called the police to report the disturbance he was causing.
They said he was trying to get into the house to demand “money from them.”
His father, Shewak Mangharam, described Nanik as “a drug addict who had been in and out of rehab” and who still has a pending case for drug possession before Branch 10 of the Regional Trial Court.
Nanik, Mangharam said, was at their house last June 26 to ask for money. When denied, Nanik began tossing things around.
Trouble
“Because he was causing too much trouble, my wife called police assistance by telephone. A few minutes later, policemen, led by Officer Campos, approached and somehow managed to restrain Nikki and sent him home,” he said.
Nanik called the Sepulveda house at around 10 p.m. last June 28 and asked to talk to his mother. Mangharam said he told Nanik that she was asleep, but Nanik got mad.
Nanik went to his parents’ house two hours later but was stopped at the gate. Mangharam said he had told the security guard, Arnel Balte of Risk Security Agency, not to let Nanik in.
Nanik persisted in trying to get in by banging the gates and then shouting, prompting the guard to fire a warning shot as Mangharam called the police.
Nanik, who was caught in possession of a revolver when the police finally arrived, had fired shots of his own, without hurting anyone.
(June 30, 2005 issue)
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