Rajkot: The surveillance team of Rajula police station nabbed a listed fugitive who had been evading arrest for over 23 years.The accused, identified as Prakash Badhani (Badani), had allegedly fled in 2003 after stealing the salaries of security staff at Pipavav Port. The police tracked down Badhani, now 60, in Morbi.Badhani, originally from Malad in Mumbai, was employed as a security supervisor at Pipavav Port. He vanished after embezzling Rs 94,685 meant for the salaries of security personnel. The complaint was lodged at Rajula police station by Umedsingh Lamba, a security officer at the port.Initial investigations at his listed addresses in Junagadh and Mumbai in 2003 yielded no results. At the time, his father told investigators that he had left home 20 years earlier. When police recently contacted his younger brother, Ashwin, in Mumbai, he revealed that the family had not heard from him in 35 years. Ashwin said his brother did not even return upon their mother’s demise, and the family considered him dead.VM Kalodara, inspector, Rajula police station, said, “Badhani consistently took measures to conceal his identity and cover his tracks. Investigators retrieved his date of birth (Dec 26, 1966) from old archives and ran checks across various databases and social media platforms.”The technical analysis eventually flagged an individual matching the birth date living in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, under the alias “Prakash Ratilal Shah”.A background verification revealed that since 2003, the accused had moved across multiple cities, including Jodhpur, Jaipur, Nashik, Vadodara, Jamnagar, Surat, Rajkot, Ahmedabad, Palanpur, and Morbi. He worked primarily as a security guard under the assumed name of Prakash Shah, routinely opening new bank accounts, acquiring new SIM cards, and changing local addresses.Investigators found that by 2024, Badhani had discarded nine mobile numbers, closed three bank accounts, and deactivated all his social media profiles, cutting off all previous contacts every time he relocated.Crucial BreakthroughThe breakthrough came when investigators examined an old photograph linked to him that featured the name of an organisation in Rajasthan, “Navjyot Manovikas Kendra”. The accused was also working for this organisation. From the organisation and through human intelligence, the police obtained his active phone number. Once his identity and live location were confirmed, the surveillance team moved in and arrested him from Morbi, where he was working in a car showroom as a security guard.During interrogation, Badhani confessed that he left his parental home in Mumbai in 1988. He later married in Vapi in 1995 and fathered two daughters, but abandoned his family in the year 2000. He admitted to a pattern of absconding with small sums of cash whenever he quit a job to mask his past background.
