CHENNAI: A special team from the Tambaram police commissionerate nabbed a 2022 murder accused from a Naxalite-prone area in Jharkhand and produced him before a city court on Friday. Sources also found that the accused, Akbar Sheikh (33), was based in Bangladesh and would routinely cross the international border to meet his family members in Jharkhand.
Sheikh was accused of murdering a fellow construction labourer while working in Navalur on Old Mahabalipuram Road in August 2022. He later absconded. Police were on the lookout for him and identified his native place as Sahibganj district in Jharkhand, which borders Malda and Murshidabad districts of West Bengal, adjoining Bangladesh.
Though police made several attempts to arrest him, they could not due to the difficult terrain and the difficulty in getting cooperation from the local population, a police official said.
“The area is dominated by Santhali tribals, who are not very fluent in Hindi. Also, a lot of Bangladeshi immigrants live in the area which made it difficult to extract information. Further, the presence of Maoists in the area put the team at the risk of confrontation with them,” the official said.
A special team under Assistant Commissioner Venkatesan was formed. An important member of the team was constable Mustakh Sheikh Ahmad (27), whose fluency in Hindi was invaluable as a translator, an official said.
Police developed local sources and tracked the mobile phones of immediate relatives, family and friends. “We tied up with auto drivers, street vendors and acquaintances of the family. The team shadowed the movement of family members continuously,” the official said.
Based on this, the team found that Sheikh now works as a merchant in Bangladesh and was due to visit his family in Jharkhand soon for a family function.
Acting on this information, the team waited patiently and nabbed him with the help of the local police. “This would not have been possible without the cooperation of the local police,” the official added.
After a transit remand, Sheikh was brought back to Chennai and sent in judicial custody.