Over 100 fugitives held in Thane during special drive

THANE: In a special drive launched by Thane city police, 104 fugitives were arrested as a part of the preventive action prior to the Lok Sabha polls.
The police said that as part of the procedure before the elections, the fugitives who were wanted and absconding can possibly interfere in the polls and hamper free and fair elections in nexus with politicians. To prevent this, we carried out the drive, especially after the code of conduct came into effect on March 10.
A senior official said, “This is a basic preventive step. We have been ordered to intensify the drive to nab the criminals who are wanted and are absconding and put them behind bars so that they may not create any law and order situation during the elections.”
Following the instructions, the cops across all the police stations that fall under the Thane commissionerate pulled up their socks and began looking for records as old as 20 to 25 years to nab the accused and rope in dedicated teams for it.
A police officer said, “Every police station maintains a record of such accused. We then launch a manhunt for them. We also question their relatives and ask them about their whereabouts.”
According to the data procured by the Thane police states that from March 10 till April 23—a total of 79 accused were arrested across the five zones.
At 39, Kalyan zone 3 had the highest number arrested accused. Apart from this, a total of 25 absconding accused were nabbed by the police since March 10 till Tuesday.
Recently, the crime branch unit-1 arrested an absconding accused who was on the run for the last 12 years and was wanted in a murder case at Dombivali.