How a business listing led cops to catch murder accused on the run for 9 years

The accused's alleged attack to murder in 2017 resulted in the registration of a murder case by the MIDC police.

Listing his scrap business online turned out to be the costliest advertisement for a murder accused who had managed to stay off the police radar for nine years.

Mehtab Alam Azimatulla Khan, 46, wanted in a 2017 murder case registered by the MIDC police, was arrested in Goa on Monday. (HT Archive)

Mehtab Alam Azimatulla Khan, 46, wanted in a 2017 murder case registered by the MIDC police, was arrested in Goa on Monday after investigators traced his digital footprint through social media and the business marketplace IndiaMART.

Accused of murder

According to Datta Nalawade, deputy commissioner of police (Zone 10), the case dates back to February 3, 2017, when complainant Abdul Mohsin Shaikh, 35, a tea vendor from Santacruz West, reported that an acquaintance named Mohabbat Ali alias Chinka had called his brother, Wasiulla Mohsin Shaikh, 41, and relative Shamshuddin Shaikh, 32, to a scrap yard in Bhangarwadi, Subhashnagar, MIDC, Andheri East, on the pretext of discussing a business deal.

The trio was first taken for lunch before the meeting turned into a deadly ambush.

Police said the accused held a grudge against Wasiulla for allegedly informing the police about Sohrab. Acting on the grudge, Mohabbat Ali alias Chinka, Sohrab, Firoz, Sabir Ali and two unidentified accomplices allegedly conspired to attack the victims, surrounding them and repeatedly assaulting them with iron rods and pipes.

The attack left them with multiple fractures and severe injuries. Wasiulla succumbed to his injuries the same day, following which the MIDC police registered a murder case.

Mehtab Khan on the run

Police arrested six accused soon after the incident. However, Mehtab Khan remained on the run despite repeated searches. His name was entered in the police station’s wanted register, while a charge sheet against the arrested accused was filed before the Dindoshi Sessions Court, where the trial is currently underway.

The breakthrough came when the MIDC police’s surveillance squad, led by assistant police inspector Pravin Rakshe, received a tip-off that Khan had continued working in the scrap trade while constantly changing states and concealing his identity.

Investigators pieced together his trail using Instagram, Facebook and IndiaMART, before cross-verifying the information with his friends and relatives. Technical analysis eventually placed him in Karnataka and Goa.

After tracking his movements across the two states for two consecutive days, the surveillance team arrested Khan while he was on his way to the National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research (NCPOR) in Vasco, Goa, to collect scrap material. “We have arrested Khan and will produce him before the court on Thursday,” Nalawade said.

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