Gujarat: Vadodara crime branch nabs notorious criminal 2 months after he disappeared from police station

VADODARA: Sixty-five days after he disappeared from Wadi police station in the city, the crime branch finally arrested notorious criminal Azharuddin Sindhi alias Ajju Kaniyo on Friday. Ajju, who has 41 offences registered against him, was nabbed along with his accomplice from Mehsana after the crime branch sleuths got information about him. He has been handed over to the Wadi police.
According to the police, Ajju had fled from the city immediately after leaving the police station. “He knew that once he goes absconding, the police will search for him in every nook and corner of the city. So he left the city and headed towards Mehsana where he got help from a local contact,” said Jaydeepsinh Jadeja, DCP (crime). Ajju rented a flat in Kadi town at Mehsana and began staying with his accomplice Mohammed Qureshi.
“When Ajju left Wadi police station on the night of June 14, Qureshi helped him flee on his two-wheeler. They both then settled in Mehsana. Ajju had, in fact, once visited the city some time ago but he left immediately,” Jadeja told TOI. The cops are finally breathing easy as Ajju is a history-sheeter who is accused in offences like attempt to murder, extortion, rioting, loot and assault.
Ajju was detained four times under Prevention of Anti-Social Act (PASA) four times and was even externed twice. He was also accused in a communal riot that broke out in the city in 2007. The notorious criminal was brought to Wadi police station on June 14 in connection with an extortion case filed against him. The cops took him to SSG Hospital for Covid-19 tests and later brought him to Wadi police station.
The police were waiting for the test results as it could arrest Ajju only if he was Covid negative. At about 1 am, Ajju casually walked out of the police station in presence of the staff and disappeared in a narrow lane nearby. The cops had kept a distance from him as he had been coughing and showing symptoms of Coronavirus. However, his results that came the next day showed that he tested negative for the virus.