MUMBAI: MIDC police arrested a man from Goa and brought him to Mumbai on Tuesday nine years after he went absconding from the city after killing a scrapdealer in Bangarwadi at Subhash Nagar in Andheri (east) alongwith six others who were arrested then and are out on bail now after was in jail for over seven years.The accused, Mehtab Alam Ajimatullah Khan (46) who was aged 37 then, was tracked after the police team found out that he is working with a scrap dealer in Goa that undertakes govt tenders of scrapping.Khan kept changing his names after he fled to Karnataka and later relocated to Goa in 2020. The reason behind the murder of the scrap dealer was becoming a police informer and tipping off the whereabouts details to the Nashik police about one of the accused brother wanted in a serious offence in 2017.The breakthrough came in the case when the MIDC police team first picked Khan’s younger brother thinking that he is the one who had committed the murder.Subsequently, information regarding the accused was gathered via social media platforms (Instagram and Facebook) and verified through his friends and relatives.“Khan’s who resides in Santacruz was picked up 15 days ago. But during inquiry he told that he is not the one we are looking for. It is his elder brother who is lookalike to him and he is 10 years to Khan. However, he did not provide proper information about Khan. But the team kept a watch on him and got a lead using technical assistance and social media platforms to get hold of the accused photo,” said a police officer.Khan along with six others allegedly killed Wasimullah Mohsin Shaikh (41) on Feb 3, 2017, after they called him for a lunch party in the afternoon.“Shaikh along with his brother Abdul and friend Samsuddin attended the party organised by the seven accused. Later the seven, including Khan, bludgeoned Shaikh to death using iron rods while his brother and friend escaped with injuries. On learning, that the seven were picked up by the police soon after the murder, Khan fled the city and discontinued using his mobile and communicated less with his family members. The breakthrough came when the police started revisiting details of all old cases and gathered information of all wanted criminals in the police station, including Khan who was never arrested, using technical assistance,” said a police officer of the MIDC police station.DCP (West Zone-3) Datta Nalawade said despite exhaustive search efforts, he could not be located at the time; consequently, he was entered into the ‘Wanted Accused’ register, and the charge sheet for the said crime was submitted to the Honorable Court in 2017.After getting instructions from the senior officers to track all old cases and absconders, DCP Nalawade supervised the team, senior inspector Ghanshyam Nair, inspector Sunil Karande, assistant inspector Pravin Rakshe, constables Narayan Bhosale, Vishal Pisal, Tanaji Suryavanshi and Deepak Waghmare, that collected details of all scrapdealers on Instamart that undertakes acquire scrap contracts through govt tenders.Senior inspector Nair said the team led by assistant inspector Rakshe stayed in Goa for five days after filtering details of the scrap dealers that get govt tenders.“Eight such dealers were filtered and the team gathered information of the staffs working with them and finally Khan was arrested. Khan has changed his identity and was not staying permanently at one place because he travelled with labourers to different states where his employer gets the scrap tender. He had travelled to seven different states and never used mobile which made it difficult to nab him,” said assistant inspector Rakshe.Khan is in police custody for murder and under several IPC sections.
