About two months back, during a routine review of pending cases, C K Baba, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Southeast), came across an old case that intrigued him.
A 45-year-old man named Suhail had jumped parole in 2007 and had vanished without a trace.
Suhail once lived in Mangammanapalya, Southeast Bengaluru, and was listed as accused number 1 among the five people arrested for the murder of a truck driver, Sebastian, near Kudlu in 2000.
Madiwala police charged Suhail and his associates Shankar, Saleem, Chand Pasha alias Chand Khan and Venugopal R.
In 2004, a fast-track court found Suhail, Shankar and Saleem guilty of dacoity and murder but acquitted Khan and Venugopal.
In 2007, Suhail got parole from March 28 to April 28 but never returned.
Shankar, another convict in the case, got parole for the third time in 2015; he too did not return to the jail. Police investigations showed he died of a kidney disease in DJ Halli a few months after jumping parole.
That was how it was for a while, until DCP Baba's eyes fell on Suhail's file.
Taken aback at Suhail's vanishing act, the DCP formed a special team under inspector S Paul Priyakumar to trace him.
Priyakumar immediately set to work. He began collecting the details of Shankar’s death and questioned the person who had filed a complaint about his death.
During his investigation, he came across a curious bit of information: Shankar frequently visited Sagar Enterprises in Belthangady, Dakshina Kannada.
The team dug more and learnt it was an ayurvedic medicine centre started by a person named Mohammed Ayaz.
A week back, Priyakumar and his team camped in Belthangady and learnt that Ayaz had been a resident of the town for the last 15 years. He was also married and had two children.
Police found out that Ayaz was in fact Suhail.
They nabbed him on Monday, ending his 15-year run from authorities, and brought him to Bengaluru. A court remanded him in judicial custody.
Suhail told police that he learnt ayurveda and obtained a licence to practise it as he wanted to start life afresh.