7 years on the run, police arrest murder accused in Telangana

After extracting the location of the village from his brother, the police team moved in and identified his hideout. The police found that he was working as a plumber. Singhsani got a whiff that the police were looking for him, so he told the villagers that his work was over, and he was leaving the village

Navi Mumbai: After dodging the police for nearly seven years, a 40-year-old accused wanted in a 2016 murder case was tracked down to a village in Telangana by a Panvel police team and was produced before a Navi Mumbai court earlier this week.

Singhsani revealed that he was hiding in Thane and Mira Bhayander for almost three years and later shifted to his native village with his wife and three kids. (HT Photo)

Raju Chinnappa Singhsani and his friend Krishna Maulappa Ganjhi, 22, had killed their friend Mohammad Yusuf Master Ali Sheikh, 42, in June 2016 over a financial dispute. Both the accused worked as sub-contractors under Sheikh.

Sheikh owed around ₹3.50 lakh payment, and despite repetitive reminders, he did not pay them. “They took Sheikh to a building in Kolkha village in Panvel on the pretext of showing him a new contract job at a new building, and offered him alcohol and later strangulated him,” said Abhay Shinde, assistant police inspector, Panvel police. “To hide his identity, they smashed his face with a stone and threw the body on the railway tracks.”

Sheikh’s family had lodged a missing complaint at Chembur police station, which came to the notice of Panvel police. The police matched the deceased clothes and identified him as Sheikh. The police arrested Ganjhi but Singhsani fled.

After Nitin Thackeray, senior police inspector, took charge of the Panvel city police station in June this year, he instructed his staff to reopen unsolved murder cases. The police started gathering information about him. They did not have any photographs of him and only knew that he was a native of Telangana. “At his native place, his relatives believed that he had died, and only his brother knew he was hiding in a village 200 km from his native place,” said Shinde.

After extracting the location of the village from his brother, the police team moved in and identified his hideout. The police found that he was working as a plumber. Singhsani got a whiff that the police were looking for him, so he told the villagers that his work was over, and he was leaving the village.

“We nabbed him on August 18 before he could vanish again and brought him to Navi Mumbai,” Shinde added.

Singhsani revealed that he was hiding in Thane and Mira Bhayander for almost three years and later shifted to his native village with his wife and three kids. Singhsani was produced before a local court on August 20 and was remanded in judicial custody.