BHOPAL: After remaining elusive for months together, the Indore crime branch police from Gujarat have finally nabbed MP's most wanted man Jeetu Soni.
A high-profile businessman and 'Sanjha Lokswami' newspaper owner, Soni was arrested from his native Amreli district of Gujarat, just four days after his brother Mahendra was nabbed by the same police team.
On the run since last six months and wanted in over 60 cases, Jeetu Soni had a bounty of Rs 1.5 lakh on his head. Nearly four dozens of these cases were registered at different police stations of Indore during the previous Congress regime in 2019-20.
Soni, who has had key contacts in both the BJP as well as the Congress in the central Indian state, was accused in cases of land grabbing, blackmailing, rape, human trafficking, extortion and fraud.
An influential businessman in Indore, Soni had found himself devoid of political allies after the Sanjha Lokswami tabloid owned by him published transcripts of the high-profile honey trap racket, which had jolted the political, bureaucratic and police circles of the state in 2019.
Not only was the conversation between the women arrested in connection with the honey trap racket and their high-profile targets published in the tabloid owned by Soni, but the audio clips of some private conversations were also reportedly uploaded on a youtube channel.
Subsequently, multiple criminal cases were registered against Soni and his big business empire in Indore took a major hit as various properties, including a hotel-cum-dance bar, hotel and part of his palatial house was demolished for encroachment by the authorities in Indore.
While Soni’s son and manager were arrested, Soni and his brother managed to flee from Indore and remained elusive till being arrested from Gujarat in the last four days.
His primary grilling by the Indore Crime Branch has revealed that while on the run, Soni managed to hide in different parts of western India, including Rajkot, Ahmadabad and Amreli in Gujarat and different suburbs of Mumbai.
According to deputy inspector general of police (DIG-Indore) HN Chari Mishra, as many as 12 teams of the city crime branch were searching for the two brothers in different parts of Gujarat following specific intelligence inputs.
“It’s not only Jeetu Soni, but many other land sharks, including his brother Mahendra Soni and two other land sharks, Champu Ajmera and Happy Dhawan, who too have been arrested by the city crime branch in a dedicated crackdown against absconding criminals over last few days,” the DIG-Indore told The New Indian Express.