Accused carried card to secure employment in the city

The Thane Police Crime Branch has nabbed a triple murder convict, who was on the run after breaking out of jail, after an Aadhaar card found in his possession confirmed his identity.

Parjitkumar Singh, who was convicted for murdering two women and a man from a family in his native Bihar in 2016, allegedly broke out of Buxar Central Jail in December 2016 along with four other inmates. He had been on the run since then and the Bihar police had been trying to trace and apprehend him.

Officials with Thane Police Crime Branch said that three months ago, Bihar police received a tip-off that Singh was hiding in Gujarat. Bihar police then shared the information with Thane Police.

An officer with Thane Police Crime Branch said, “We visited Bihar early last year while in pursuit of a kidnapping accused and received a lot of help from the local police. When they informed us about Singh’s whereabouts, we activated our sources in Gujarat. For the next three months, we worked on the information and shared inputs with Bihar police.”

The officer said that two days ago, their informants in Gujarat said that Singh was heading towards Mumbai. We tracked his movements to Andheri, where he stayed for a day.

The officer said, “He was planning to stay in city and look for a job. However, protests erupted over the Bhima Koregaon incident on Wednesday and he decided to spend the night with his friend in Thane. We kept following him and finally picked him up from near CIDCO bus stop in Thane on Thursday morning.”

When the police questioned the accused, he gave evasive answers and lied about his name. The police then frisked him and found an Aadhaar card in his pocket, which confirmed his identity.

The officer said, “As part of the government’s initiative, the prison authorities made all inmates apply for Aadhaar cards. The cards were then mailed to the residences of the inmates. After the jailbreak, Singh went to his residence and picked it up so that he could use it to secure employment. Over the last one year, he managed to work as a housekeeping staff member in hotels in Gujarat, Mumbai and Thane.”

Following his arrest, the Thane Crime Branch informed the Bihar police and produced Singh in court. He has been remanded in judicial custody. A team from Biihar police is expected to reach Thane on Friday morning to take Singh into custody.