This comes right out of a spy thriller. Wanted in two back-to-back murders in Uttar Pradesh, a notorious criminal preferred to disguise himself, create a new identity and become a fruit-seller. But his luck seems to have run out.
The accused, Aashu alias Parveen alias Akash Rajendra Singh, a 32-year-youth was finally nabbed by the elite Crime Branch-CID of Mumbai police on Saturday.
Singh, who was involved in the murder of a BJP leader and an industrialist, was arrested from Jogeshwari suburbs of Mumbai.
Singh is a member of the dreaded Mirchi gang of Western UP.
He had allegedly killed a local BJP leader Rakesh Sharma at Dhaulana (Hapur district) in September, 2019.
Singh and his accomplices had gunned down a prominent Noida industrialist Gaurav Chandel in January, 2020.
Besides, he has another 17 serious cases of murder, kidnappings, extortion and other gangland crimes for which offences are registered against him in UP, Haryana and Delhi, deputy commissioner of police (detection) Akbar Pathan said.
The accused managed to escape the clutches of the law for over a year and carried a reward of Rs 2.5 lakh on his head.
“After he absconded since a year, the accused was moving around in different cities of states like Punjab, Haryana, even Delhi, and finally located in Mumbai where he worked as a fruit-seller,” Pathan said.
Investigations revealed that over the past six months, he kept changing his identity and appearance.
Singh has confessed to his crimes and has been handed over to the UP Police for further action, Pathan added.