BHOPAL: An elderly man in Madhya Pradesh, Salim Sheikh, has learnt the hard way that people seldom escape the long arm of the law. Over 45 years after he and five other youths allegedly stole wheat worth Rs 100 from an agricultural field in southwestern Madhya Pradesh’s Khargone district, police nabbed him on Saturday.
According to a senior police officer in Khargone district, Sheikh was 20 years old when he committed the theft in the Balasamud Kakad village in 1980. Now 65, Sheikh reportedly let his hair down, thinking the law would not catch up with him. So he was in for a shock when the Khargone district police from the Bagh area of the adjoining Dhar district caught him.
He was subsequently produced in a local court, which denied him bail and sent him to judicial custody. Sheikh and another accused in the case, Salim Mohammad, remained on the run for years and were declared absconders by the court later, and an arrest warrant was issued.
It was an intelligence input about Mohammad that eventually led the cops of the Balakwada police station area to Sheikh. The cops were told that they would find Mohammad in Dewas district. However, upon conducting a raid there in connection with the case, the cops learnt that he had already passed away.
It was Mohammad’s kin that told the police that Sheikh was still alive and lived in the Bagh area of Dhar district, which is around 90-100 km from the agricultural field in Khargone district where the wheat theft was committed. The police jumped into action and nabbed Sheikh from Dhar.
Local media reports in Khargone suggest that Sheikh had kept a low profile since shifting to Dhar district. He was confident that the police had forgotten about the 1980 case. Little did he know that the police would come looking for him even after all these decades.
Long run ends
Sheikh was 20 years old when he committed the theft in Khargone in 1980
He was nabbed from Dhar, produced in court, which sent him to
judicial custody