Absconding accused traced after 21 years

Udupi: An absconding accused was arrested after nearly 21 years. The accused is Farooq, a resident of Kasaragod, and currently residing at Magadi, Ramanagara district. He was taken into custody and produced before the court on Tuesday. The magistrate has since remanded the accused to judicial custody.According to police, the accused was arrested in connection with a complaint filed on Dec 25, 2004, by Shoukat Ali. A case was registered at Shankaranarayana police station invoking Section 395 (dacoity) of the IPC. It was later marked as a long-pending case at Amasebail police station. One of the accused in the case, Farooq, has been absconding and has failed to appear before the court since 2004. A warrant was issued against him.To trace this absconding accused, a special team was formed under the guidance of Udupi SP Hariram Shankar and additional SP Sudhakar S Naik, with further supervision from DSP of Kundapur subdivision HD Kulkarni and Jayaram Gowda, circle inspector of Kundapur. The operation was led by Ashok Kumar, PSI of Amasebail police station, and Chandra AK, PSI.After gathering reliable intelligence through various sources, the team arrested the accused on Monday at Magadi, Ramanagara district.