Accused on run held again after 24yrs
The Antop Hill police has arrested a 46-year-old man in a 24-year-old kidnapping case on Monday. The accused was absconding for the past 19 years.
Sanjay Digambhar Bhandare was arrested in the year 1988 for reportedly abducting a minor girl, but never appeared for the court’s proceedings soon after he got bail and was declared an absconder in the year 1994.
According to the police, the Dormant File (DF) Squad of the Antop Hill police station recently received a tip-off from informers that a man who was absconding in a decades-old kidnapping case was spotted in the area.
“Head constable V. Choupade and police naik Sanjay Jadhav then laid a trap with the help of the informer on Monday and arrested Bhandare. During interrogation he confessed to his crime”, said an officer from Antop Hill police station on the condition of anonymity.
The police investigations revealed that in 1988, 21-year-old Bhandare, who lives in Sardar Nagar, allegedly kidnapped a minor girl. On the complaint of the victim’s parents a case was registered in the police station and Bhandare was arrested.
“After a few days, he secured bail in the matter, but later avoided attending the court hearings. When policemen visited his house to summon him he was not found on the given address,” a source said.
In 1994, the Kurla court declared him as an offender and issued a standing warrant against him. However, the police could not arrest him due to his changing whereabouts. At one address, the police officials found his mother, but questioning her yielded no results.
“After jumping bail, and being at large for so many years, he changed his appearance. He lived as a hawker and married one Sunita. However, we ultimately arrested him following a tip-off. He was produced in court on Tuesday and sent to jail till May 7,” added another official.
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