Mumbai Police nab riots accused fugitive after 31 years

Mumbai, July 2 (IANS) Notching a major detection success, the Mumbai Police have tracked down and re-arrested an absconder in the 1993 riots, who jumped bail and remained absconding for 31 years, from Sewri in south Mumbai, an official said here on Tuesday.

The accused is identified as Sayed Nadirshah Abbas Khan, 65, who was arrested for his alleged role in the two-phased riots that erupted in Mumbai in December 1992-January 1993 after the demolition of the Babri Mosque on December 6, 1992.

The Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Marg Police Station Senior Police Inspector Satish Pawar said that Khan had been arrested 30 years ago in cases of unlawful assembly and an attempt to murder, and was later released on bail.

“After stepping out of judicial custody, he jumped bail and disappeared. The police had been searching for him for years, later he was proclaimed as a wanted accused and the court had even issued a non-bailable warrant of arrest against him, but he remained untraceable,” Pawar told IANS.

Police teams were keeping discreet tabs in the vicinity of his known address in Sewri but he remained elusive and then a special team which handles such cases managed to trace him after nearly five years of investigations, added Pawar.

Tracking the mobile phone records of Khan’s relatives, the special team learnt that he was planning to visit his home last Saturday and they set a trap for him.

He walked into the trap and has been re-arrested in the same old case, the officer said.

Since the original charge sheet has already been filed, Khan will now face the same charges at the court hearings in the case and police are optimistic that the verdict will be pronounced in due course.