Vadodara: “Kanoon ke haath bahut lambe hote hain.” Sixty nine-year-old Habib Ahmed Abdul Shakur Pathan had heard the filmi dialogue countless times in the cop dramas of the 1980s. But after evading arrest for 45 years in a bus robbery case, Pathan has now discovered that the long arm of the law can indeed stretch across state borders.The Vadodara Rural police’s Local Crime Branch (LCB) traced Pathan to his native village in Kasganj, Uttar Pradesh, and arrested him in connection with a robbery committed on a passenger bus in Karjan near Vadodara in 1981 making the case one of the oldest long-pending arrests in the state.Police said he had remained absconding for nearly four-and-a-half decades, moving between different states and locations before eventually settling down in his native place.Pathan was wanted in connection with Karjan police station registered under IPC Sections 395 and 397 and Section 25(C) of the Arms Act.Police records show that the robbery took place on July 27, 1981, when a luxury passenger bus travelling from Rajkot to Mumbai was intercepted near Lakodra village in Karjan taluka.According to police, a six-member gang boarded the bus posing as passengers. After travelling for some distance, the gang allegedly brandished a revolver and forced the driver to pull over near a bend on the highway.The accused then allegedly robbed passengers and the conductor of cash, gold ornaments, watches and other valuables worth Rs 32,795, a substantial amount in those days.Of the six accused, three — Zulfikar Chandmiya Pathan, Maysurali Makbul Ali Sheikh and Mohammad Abid Nabialam Pathan — were arrested earlier. Another accused, Nabishraj Sulaiman Pathan, died, while Raish Alam Nasir Alam Pathan remains wanted.Pathan, meanwhile, managed to stay ahead of investigators for decades. Vadodara Rural SP Sushil Agrawal said a Section 70 warrant issued by a local court was pending against him.“Tracing a person in a case dating back to 1981 is challenging, particularly because there were no mobile phones or modern digital records then. Our teams worked through human intelligence and technical sources, verified the information and finally established that he was staying at his native place,” Agrawal said.The breakthrough came after head constables Khodabhai Ranabhai and Harshkumar Sanatanbhai developed information about Pathan’s whereabouts.An LCB team travelled to Uttar Pradesh, kept surveillance and, after confirming his identity and presence, arrested him from his residence.The arrest was made under Operation Parakram, launched to trace long-pending absconders. Pathan was subsequently handed over to Karjan police for further legal proceedings.Police said he is yet to be interrogated in detail. Officers involved in the operation said the arrest is significant as the accused had remained out of the police net for almost 45 years.
