Mumbai: A gangster belonging to Subhashsingh Thakur gang who was on the run for the last 14 years was arrested by the Mumbai police in suburban Dahisar today.
Acting on a tip-off, unit-5 of Mumbai police’s Crime Branch nabbed Arputraj Biraswami John (53) from a car at Kandarpada Chowk.
“Crime Branch sleuths were tracking his movements for the last twenty days but he kept changing his location and mobile SIM card,” said Vinay Rathod, Deputy Commissioner of Police.
John was in contact with other members of Thakur gang for the last few months, and police were probing if he was in the city for any specific assignment, the DCP said.
A local court remanded John in police custody till April 10 following the arrest.
A resident of suburban Khar, he was wanted for cases of murder, extortion and other serious offences committed during the last 35 years.
In 1986, he and his accomplice allegedly murdered a man in suburban Andheri’s MIDC area by pouring acid on him.
He also has cases registered against him in Delhi and other parts of the country.
Earlier, he had been convicted in a TADA case. While lodged in a Delhi jail in 1999, he allegedly threatened a Mumbai- based businessman, demanding money.
He is also wanted in a murder case registered in 2003 in the neighbouring Nallasopara, and Arms Act cases registered at Nirmal Nagar and Kherwadi police stations in Mumbai, the official said.
John’s brother Kalya Anthony, who used to work for Thakur, was killed in a police encounter.
Subhashsingh Thakur, who is now jailed in Uttar Pradesh, became notorious after he and others barged into the general ward of JJ hospital here in September 1992 and gunned down Shailesh Haldankar of Arun Gawli gang to avenge the murder of Dawood’s brother-in-law, Ibrahim Parkar.
Thakur later formed his own gang. During the planning and execution of JJ shoot-out, Thakur was stying at John’s residence in Khar, the official said.
—PTI