Kannur (Kerala) | A man who had been on the run for the past 22 years after allegedly selling stolen cars in Kerala was arrested in Uttar Pradesh, police said on Monday.
The accused, Baldev Singh (60), is a native of Ghodi village in Haryana's Palwal district.
Officials said he was arrested on Sunday in Tappal in Uttar Pradesh's Aligarh district with the assistance of the local police.
According to police, Singh was a notorious vehicle thief who allegedly stole cars from various states in northern India, obtained forged documents from Odisha and later sold the vehicles in Kannur.
The fraud came to light when police teams from other states arrived in Kannur in search of the stolen vehicles, officials said.
Around 10 cases were registered against Singh at the Kannur town police station in 2004 in connection with the racket, police said.
He was arrested in one of the cases but later absconded after being released on bail, they said.
Multiple warrants, including a long-pending (LP) warrant, were pending against him before the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court, police said.
According to officials, Singh had been evading arrest for more than two decades and was living in Haryana, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh.
During this period, he joined a political party and rose to become a district-level leader, police said.
The accused was traced during a drive to clear long-pending cases in Kannur district.
Acting on intelligence inputs, the police team reached Tappal and arrested him with the assistance of the Uttar Pradesh police.
He was subsequently brought to Kannur and produced before a court, which remanded him in judicial custody.
