72-year-old robber re-arrested after 37 years on the run
Police said his home in Sewri’s Labour Camp had been demolished by the BMC and that he fled after obtaining bail
MUMBAI: The Sewri police on Wednesday arrested a 72-year-old man—who had been on the run for the past 37 years—from Katraj in Pune. The accused was arrested in a robbery-and-assault case registered in the Sewri police station in 1983 but disappeared after he was released on bail. A standing non-bailable warrant was subsequently issued against him.
“We have arrested Shaukat Ali Imam Shaikh, 72, a resident of Santosh Nagar in Katraj, Pune,” said Sanjay Latkar, deputy commissioner of police, Port Zone. “He appeared before the trial court till 1987 but failed to attend thereafter. There were several bailable and non-bailable warrants issued against him by the sessions court, which finally issued a standing non-bailable arrest warrant against him.”
Shaukat changed his address after getting out on bail. “We went to his old address available in our records and found that the slum in Sewri’s Labour Camp, where he used to stay, had been demolished by the BMC,” said Walmiki Mahajan from Sewri police station. “We learnt that his brother Nazir Shaikh’s family stayed in an old building near the demolished slum and went there. Nazir’s son told us that the family had not been in touch with his uncle, and all that he knew was that he stayed somewhere in Siddharth Nagar in Worli.”
The police team, after being told that Shaukat’s son’s name was Ashfaq, searched for him on Facebook, contacted some of his common friends and through them got his mobile number and tracked him down to his home. “Ashfaq, however, told us that his father’s name was Shaukat Imam Bagwan,” said Mahajan. “We found him very unaccommodating.”
The police then managed to get one telephone number of the family through its neighbours in Worli. They discovered that Shaukat was staying with his second son, Wasim, at Santosh Nagar in Katraj. “With the help of the local police, our teams searched the area and picked up Shaukat from the locality,” said Mahajan. “He was staying with his wife and his son’s family in Pune.”
The police found a passport of Shaukat issued in 1980, the picture on which matched with his present-day face. “We also found out that the witness to his bail back in 1983 was his brother Nazir, and his details too matched,” said Mahajan. Shaukat was then produced before the sessions court, which remanded him to judicial custody in connection with the 37-year-old robbery-and-assault case.
“The police made extraordinary efforts to track down the 72-year-old,” said Latkar. “They were all felicitated by the joint CP, Law and Order, Satyanarayan Choudhary, with a cash reward for their dedicated work, which resulted in the arrest of the accused.”