For nearly three decades, police say Sam Antony kept changing more than just his location. He allegedly changed his name, his identity and even the government agency he claimed to represent.
The 64-year-old Kerala native was arrested by the Mangaluru City Crime Branch from Kannur on September 1 after spending nearly three years away from the reach of investigators.
Police say he is wanted in around 17 cheating, impersonation and extortion cases spread across several states.
Police say Antony has used several names over the years. They include Sam Peter, Rahul Peter, Danny Tharakkan, Rajesh Robinson and Anthony Francis. Other aliases have also surfaced during the investigation. Officers believe there could be more identities that have not yet been traced.
The alleged method was simple but difficult to track. Police say he would present himself as an officer connected to a central investigation agency and approach people who were already facing trouble over financial disputes, bank fraud or tax matters.
He allegedly told them that he could help settle their cases and used the authority of those fake positions to collect money.
His alleged impersonation did not stop with one agency. Investigators say he posed at different times as an officer of agencies including the NIA and RAW and also claimed to hold senior positions in the National Crime Investigation Bureau. Police say he carried fake identity documents to support the identities he used.
The case that brought him back onto the police radar began in Mangaluru. In August 2019, police received information that a man claiming to be a senior NCIB officer was staying at a lodge in the city.
Officers went there and found Antony along with several associates. Police later arrested eight members of the alleged group and recovered firearms, fake identity cards, cash, vehicles and other documents.
Investigators then began looking beyond that case. What emerged was a much longer trail. Police say the earliest case they have traced dates back to 1997 in Chhattisgarh.
A year later, another case was registered against him in Karnataka. Records examined by investigators now point to cases in Karnataka as well as Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh.
Police say he followed a pattern. After allegedly committing offences in one place, he would move elsewhere and start using another identity.
Investigators also say he avoided leaving an obvious digital trail and did not generally use mobile connections or bank accounts in his own name. That made it harder for different police units to connect the cases.
There was another break in the trail after he obtained bail. Police say he stopped appearing before the court in 2023 and disappeared again. For almost three years, investigators struggled to find him.
The search picked up again when Mangaluru police reopened the old case and formed teams to trace him. Officers began contacting people who had been associated with him in the past.
Eventually they found that he had been appearing at public events in Kerala and had even attended one event as a chief guest. Photographs from that event helped investigators identify his whereabouts, according to police.
When officers finally arrested him, police say he was once again living under another name. Investigators identified him as Danny Tharakan and said he was presenting himself as a retired senior NCIB officer.
Even after his arrest, police said some people contacted them to defend him because they believed the identity he had created.
Mangaluru police have now compiled a list of about 17 cases they believe may be connected to Antony. They have also contacted police stations in other parts of the country to find out whether more cases are pending against him.
The investigation is continuing and the allegations will have to be established through the legal process.
What makes the case stand out is not simply the number of cases. It is the length of time the alleged deception continued. Police records connected to the accused stretch back to the 1990s, while investigators say he repeatedly managed to start again under a different name and in a different place.
Now that he is back in custody, police have an opportunity to connect those scattered cases and establish how much of the trail can actually be linked to the same man.
