BENGALURU: Once a felon, always a felon goes the saying, and so it proved for a murder convict who jumped parole and eluded the long arm of the law for 11 years, only to land right back in prison for stealing a goat.
Police eventually tracked down Abdul Ghani, 30, a resident of Sagar, Shivamogga district through his fingerprints after he had changed his name, shifted to Dakshina Kannada district and even obtained an Aadhaar card under the false identity.
Ghani was convicted in 2006 and sentenced to life imprisonment for killing his wife over dowry. In November 2007, citing the wedding of his sister, he applied — and was granted — 14-day emergency parole.
He walked out of prison and then, much to the chagrin of police, seemed to have disappeared from the face of the earth.
In parole documents submitted to police, Ghani had stated that he would be staying in Sollapur, Ajjampura police limits, Chikkamagaluru. But a month later, when prison officials arrived in Ajjampura in search of Ghani, they returned empty-handed as he was not to be found.
Following a direction from a court on tracking fugitive convicts and abscond warrantees, Ajjampura police registered a case in 2015 and a special team was formed to trace Ghani.
With no viable leads on Ghani’s whereabouts, sleuths sent Ghani’s fingerprints to all police stations in the state. “We requested our colleagues to match the fingerprints with criminals in their custody or those they arrested in the near future,” Annamalai K, superintendent of police, Chikkamagaluru, told TOI.
“Not long after that, there was a hit at the Kadaba police station in Dakshina Kannada district. Officers there found that the prints matched a man who was accused of stealing a goat,” he added.
TOP COMMENT
Good that he is now back where he belongs, and hope this home-stay in jail gets extended this time for the goat.
Sugath Palan
Police found Ghani had fled to Uppinangadi in Dakshina Kannada and had changed his name and profession. “He became Shakir Ahmed, a truck driver by profession,” Annamalai said. “He even got an Aadhaar card in the name of Shakir, married a local woman and became father of three kids.”
The special team caught up with Ghani alias Shakir on April 28 this year. On questioning police say he eventually admitted he was Ghani. “Now we have sent him back to Central Prison (Parappana Agrahara ).”