Ahmedabad: For nearly 28 years, a man accused of stealing a two-wheeler when he was 22, managed to stay under the radar — not by fleeing the city, but by quietly living in Ahmedabad, often just a short distance from a police station.The city crime branch on Sunday arrested 51-year-old Anil Koshti, who was absconding in a 1998 two-wheeler theft case registered at Navrangpura police station. He was apprehended near the Narol-Lambha Bhammariya turning and later handed over to Navrangpura police.Though he allegedly went into hiding after the offence, investigators found he never actually left Ahmedabad. Instead, he shifted between different neighbourhoods over the years, most recently settling in the Vatva-Vinzol area — barely 4km from Ramol police station — without ever being traced in the decades-old case.Koshti also faces another two-wheeler theft case registered at Shahibaug police station in 1998. Crime branch officials said he was tracked down during a special drive to trace long-absconding accused from Ahmedabad and other states.The arrest follows another unusual breakthrough earlier this month, when the crime branch nabbed a man wanted in a 1988 cycle-rickshaw theft case, highlighting renewed efforts to close decades-old property offence investigations.
