The Dehradun police has arrested a man from Uttar Pradesh who had escaped from the custody of Mumbai police and had a reward of Rs 25,000 on his arrest.
The superintendent of police (City) Shweta Choubey informed the media that on January 1, Mussoorie Road resident Savitri Singh, the wife of Manoj Singh Thakur lodged a case against Sunil Malhotra and others for alleged criminal conspiracy and using forged documents to purchase her flat in Dehradun.
Investigation revealed that the complainant’s husband had connived with the accused to use forged documents for selling the flat to him for Rs 98 lakh. As the police began searching for Manoj Singh Thakur to get his statement, it was ascertained that he was a native of Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh who had been living in Mumbai since his childhood. The police then contacted their counterparts in Mumbai and Uttar Pradesh seeking more information about Thakur. The SP City was informed by the Mumbai police on February 11 that an accused named Manoj Singh Thakur had escaped from the custody of Mumbai police from Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh. About 20 serious cases under various sections had been registered against him in Mumbai and Azamgarh with a reward of Rs 25,000 also having been announced by the Uttar Pradesh police on his arrest. The Mumbai police had also stated that the accused could probably visit Dehradun to meet his wife and children. The police sprung into action and set in motion various measures to search for him and keep an eye on his flat and other locations.
On Wednesday, an informant tipped off the police that the accused had been spotted near the Kachehri in Dehradun and would probably come to meet his wife. It was learnt that he had hired a taxi. The police then started checking suspicious vehicles on the route to his residence in Dehradun.
Late on Wednesday night the police spotted a suspicious car and on stopping it found the accused in it. He told the police that while returning from a court appearance in Azamgarh on February 11, he had escaped from police custody. On checking him, the police also found one firearm on him.
During questioning, among other things, he informed that he had worked as a reporter in a newspaper for four years in Mumbai.
From 2008 to 2012 he was also the state spokesman of Lalu Prasad Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal party in Maharashtra. After that, he was also the state general secretary of the Samajwadi Party in Maharashtra from 2012 to 2014.