Accused in RPI leader murder case arrested after 16 years

MUMBAI: After evading arrest for 16 years, Jayprakash Singh, one of the four accused allegedly involved in the 2009 Pravin Dhule murder case was arrested by the crime branch officers of the Mira-Bhayander-Vasai-Virar police on Thursday.
Leader of the Republican Party of India (RPI), Pravin Dhule, 29, a resident of Achole, Nalasopara, had raised his voice against the land mafias and filed several complaints. In 2009, Dhule was outside the party office in Achole when a few men barged inside, ransacked the office and fired three gunshots at him and fled.
The police had then arrested two men – Sikandar Shaikh alias Sikka, 28, and Anil Singh, 31, who were later convicted in the case. The police were looking for two more men, one of whom was identified as Jayprakash Singh and was declared absconding. Sikka and Singh were part of the land mafia and had killed Dhule over a land dispute. The fourth accused is still at large and the police are trying g to trace him.
The crime branch officers had been tracing him and had found out that Singh had fled to his native place in Uttar Pradesh.
On reaching Uttar Pradesh and enquiring, the officers discovered that he had returned to Nalasoapara and was living under a different identity. For the next four months, the police tried to trace him and gather information.
On Thursday they received reliable information that Singh was working in a chocolate factory in Bhayander. After keeping a watch, the officers spotted Singh while coming out of the factory and arrested him. The officers have now handed him over to the Achole police station for further investigation.
The police are now on the lookout for the fourth accused Ajay Singh who was also present during the murder. The two accused who were convicted of the murder were in jail for 10 years. “The fourth accused in the case is still at large and we are trying to trace him,” said a police officer.