Dawood gang member arrested after 29 years on the run

The NM Joshi Marg police have arrested a 63-year-old former Dawood Ibrahim gang member who had jumped bail and was wanted in a 1996 attempt-to-murder case inside Arthur Road Jail. The accused, identified as Hingu, was picked up by police from Hubli in Karnataka, where he had been in hiding since several years.

MUMBAI: The NM Joshi Marg police have arrested a 63-year-old former Dawood Ibrahim gang member who had jumped bail and was wanted in a 1996 attempt-to-murder case inside Arthur Road Jail. The accused, identified as Hingu, was picked up by police from Hubli in Karnataka, where he had been in hiding since several years.

Dawood gang member arrested after 29 years on the run

Hingu was allegedly involved in the murder of a Chhota Rajan gang member in Ghatkopar and was lodged in Arthur Road Jail from 1993. In 1996, there was a gang war inside the jail and Hingu along with other members were booked under sections 307 (attempt to murder) and 324 (intentionally causing harm to another person using dangerous weapons or means) of the Indian Penal Code, after a member of the rival Chhota Rajan gang was seriously injured in a fight.

The same year, Hingu was released on bail, but he stopped attending trial court and following request by the police, the metropolitan magistrate court in Dadar issued several warrants against him, said Somnath Deshmane, assistant police inspector of NM Joshi Marg police station. However, police failed to nab him as he had gone underground by this time.

“We recently learnt that he had shifted to Bengaluru from Juhu Galli in Andheri three to four years ago. We checked the voter’s lists of various Lok Sabha constituencies in Karnataka and found his name in a list of Hubli,” said Deshmane.

The assistant police inspector then visited Hubli and discreetly verified that the voter identified by him was the wanted accused. “We learnt that he was working in a restaurant in Hubli as manager. We visited the restaurant and confirmed that he was the wanted accused, and our team picked him up. He claimed that he was acquitted in the Ghatkopar murder case, but we are yet to verify it,” said Deshmane.