- Mohammad Taslim, convicted in 1992 Radhika Gymkhana massacre, was arrested after 7 years on the run
- Taslim escaped in 2019 after temporary parole and changed identities to evade capture
- He was a sharpshooter for underworld don Abdul Latif's gang involved in 1990s Gujarat gang wars
A convict in the 1992 Radhika Gymkhana massacre - the first gang violence incident in Gujarat to feature AK-47 assault rifles - was apprehended by the Gujarat police after being on the run for seven years, an official said on Sunday.
Mohammad Taslim alias Mohammad Taslim Mohammad Umar Sheikh, who was serving a life sentence in the gymkhana massacre case and the assassination of former Rajya Sabha MP Rauf Valiullah, was arrested from Rajasthan in a coordinated operation, the Ahmedabad crime branch said.
Taslim, a former shooter of underworld don Abdul Latif's gang, had absconded in 2019 after being released on temporary parole from Sabarmati Central Jail and had since been evading arrest by frequently changing his identity, location and means of communication, they said.
Based on a tip-off, crime branch teams traced his hideout in Rajasthan and nabbed him during a tactical operation, police said.
Legal formalities are underway to bring him back to Sabarmati Central Jail, they added.
According to the police, Taslim was a trusted sharpshooter in Abdul Latif's gang, which was involved in several violent gang wars in Gujarat in the 1990s.
He was convicted in the Radhika Gymkhana massacre in Ahmedabad's Odhav area, in which a heavily armed gang opened indiscriminate fire to target rival bootlegger Hansraj Trivedi on August 3, 1992.
Nine persons were killed in the attack, which police have described as the first gang-war incident in Gujarat involving the use of AK-47 rifles.
Taslim was also convicted in the murder of former Rajya Sabha MP and Congress leader Raoof Valiullah, who was shot dead in Ahmedabad in October 1992.
The killing was linked to Valiullah's efforts to expose the gang's involvement in the gymkhana massacre, they said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
