NE NEWS SERVICE
AHMEDABAD, JUNE 27
After remaining elusive for nine years, a 36-year-old man was arrested by the Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) on Friday for his alleged involvement in five murders between 2008 and 2011.
Based on specific inputs and three-month-long technical surveillance, an ATS team nabbed Aslam Shaikh from his home in Vesu area of Surat, said deputy superintendent of police K K Patel.
Shaikh had changed his name to Lalabhai Patel a few years ago, married a nurse using his fake identity, and fathered three children, the official said.
Hailing from Balasinor town of Mahisagar district, the accused is the only child of an affluent family, which used to own a petrol pump and a tractor showroom, he said.
“Despite his background, Shaikh became a thief and did not hesitate to kill people for just Rs 25,000 to Rs 30,000,” Patel said.
Between 2008 and 2011, Shaikh and his accomplices had killed five persons, all drivers, and cleaners, and decamped with their tractors and trolleys, which they then sold for a small amount, he said.
In all these cases, Shaikh and his men overpowered their victims, tied them up and threw them alive into canals, the senior official said.
In one of the killings, Shaikh had looted an entire truck carrying five new tractors after throwing the driver into the canal, he said.
While his accomplices were nabbed in 2011, Shaikh fled to Goa and later returned to Surat, where he took up a new identity and started working in hospitals as a helper, the official added.
