The Ahmedabad crime branch in Gujarat has caught Manish Singh, a notorious criminal, and member of Uttar Pradesh's dreaded Subhash Singh Thakur gang, on the run for the last 12 years, officials said Wednesday.
Based on a tip-off about Singh's location, members of the Ahmedabad crime branch team stayed in Vasai near Mumbai for nearly a month and kept a close watch on his movements. The police personnel even worked as watchmen and cleaners at a residential society in three shifts, a release by the crime branch said.
Singh, 37, was finally caught on Tuesday and brought to Ahmedabad today, it said.
Singh - a "most wanted" criminal in Uttar Pradesh - carried a Rs 50,000 bounty on his head. A native of UP's Varanasi, Singh was on the run and kept evading arrest ever since he escaped from the UP police's custody in 2009, it added.
He is wanted in nearly 20 cases in different states, including 15 in UP and three in Gujarat. He was charged for serious offences, like murder, attempt to murder and under the Arms Act for providing firearms to other criminals.
In 2014, three FIRs related to murder, criminal conspiracy, and under the Arms Act were registered against Singh in Gujarat.
The most sensational case was related to the murder of two persons inside the office of a petrol pump in Gujarat. Bharatsinh Vala and Ranchhod Patel were shot dead by three persons over some old enmity.
The police were looking for Singh after investigation revealed that he had provided revolvers and pistols to the three accused in the case, who were arrested by the police at that time.
Singh committed his first criminal offence in 2007 when he fired nearly 12 rounds on a person in Varanasi to establish his dominance. He came under the UP police's lens after the murder of businessman RK Singh. It was alleged that Manish Singh took the contract to kill the businessman from his business rivals, said the release.
After his escape in 2009, Singh went to Mumbai and allegedly threatened a bar owner for money. When the bar owner Krishna Shetty refused, Singh and other members of the Subhash Singh Thakur gang fired on Shetty. Singh is wanted in that case too, the release said.
