The Mumbai Police Crime Branch on Wednesday arrested a currency counterfeiting accused who was on the run for 35 years after jumping bail.
According to officers, Ibrahim Mansuri (63) was 28 years old when he and 10 others were arrested at the Mumbai international airport in 1985. All of them were found to be in possession of fake Indian currency notes. Mr. Mansuri obtained bail in the case and went missing.
The Crime Branch Unit X, while taking stock of the absconding accused, began tracking down Mr. Mansuri. A team headed by assistant police inspector Wahid Pathan tracked his movements for five years before arresting him from Gujarat.
Finding links
“We first visited the places where he had stayed or worked before he went missing, including a hotel in Meghwadi where he worked as a waiter and a locality in Kurla where he used to live. We found some people who had grown up in the area, ultimately coming across a few who were still in touch with him,” an officer who was part of the investigating team said.
Traced to Gujarat
The team obtained Mr. Mansuri’s cell phone number and tracked his location to Palanpur in Gujarat. After several weeks of studying Mr. Mansuri’s movements, Mr. Pathan and his team left from Mumbai on Tuesday. “We found that he was running a grocery store in Palanpur and picked him up from there. Preliminary questioning confirmed that he was the person we were looking for, and he was arrested and brought to Mumbai on Wednesday,” the officer said.
Mr. Mansuri allegedly told the police that he fled straight to Gujarat after obtaining bail in 1985 and changed addresses several times before settling down in Palanpur. He first worked in hotels and saved money to set up his shop. He also got married and has two sons, officers said.
Mr. Mansuri was handed over to the Sahar police.
