Ahmedabad: After allegedly spending nearly a quarter of a century dodging the law, changing identities, shifting homes and blending into Ahmedabad’s urban sprawl, Dinesh Desai, a murder accused wanted in Rajasthan, was finally tracked down and arrested by Ahmedabad Crime Branch. Now 54, Desai was arrested from Vejalpur’s Sagar Samrat Apartments where he was living with his family and had become a property broker.Desai was wanted for the alleged 2002 murder of Delaram Nai over a property dispute. Sadri police station in Rajasthan’s Pali district, which registered a case of murder and criminal conspiracy, also announced a reward for any information on Desai.A property dispute and an ‘accident’Police investigations revealed that the reason for the alleged murder was a bitter dispute between two families over ancestral property and business in Rajasthan’s Dungli village.Police said Desai and his associates conspired to eliminate Nai. The group allegedly travelled to Pali in a Tata Sumo and lay in wait. After spotting Nai on his motorcycle near Bera Tilawa on the Pali border, the accused allegedly rammed their vehicle into his motorcycle, killing him on the spot. They abandoned their vehicle and fled the spot, attempting to pass off the incident as a road accident, police said.Hiding in plain sightPolice said Desai briefly returned to his native place in Kankrej, Banaskantha. With cops on his trail, he took off, eventually resurfacing in Ahmedabad, where he allegedly concealed his identity and survived by taking up daily-wage jobs at various locations and frequently changing residences.Over the years, he moved through different parts of the city before settling in Vejalpur. Police said he lived with his family at Sagar Samrat Apartment and had, in recent years, established himself as a property broker.A breakthroughCrime branch officials said the breakthrough came after specific intelligence inputs were developed through a network of human sources and supplemented with technical surveillance.After confirming that the man living in Vejalpur was indeed the fugitive, officers arrested him, bringing an end to a 24-year-old manhunt. Officers said Desai would be handed over to Rajasthan police for further investigation and court proceedings.A crime branch officer said the arrest also raises questions over how a wanted murder accused continued living in Ahmedabad undetected for 24 years. “The local police machinery was apparently not keen enough on pursuing a long-pending warrant against him, allowing him to remain under the police’s nose for years,” the officer said.
