Long arm of the law: Mumbai cops trace and arrest man, 71, in murder bid case after 48 years

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Criminals may be adept at faking identities, but police are masters of busting deceptions, which was evident when they traced and arrested a 71-year-old man wanted in an attempt to murder case, after 48 years, who was living as a recluse in a coastal village in Ratnagiri district.

Police picked up the trail of the accused, Chandrashekhar Kalekar, after scanning voters' lists and other records, and also used human intelligence to trace him in Dapoli taluka on Tuesday morning, a Mumbai Police official said on Wednesday.

Kalekar is accused of knifing a woman when he was living in the Lalbaug area in 1977. He never responded to legal notices and vanished into thin air, but police didn't give up.

To evade arrest, Kalekar stayed in various suburbs of Mumbai and in Badlapur town in Thane district, an official said.

While going through the old files of criminals on the run for several years, the police decided to trace him and launched a hunt, culminating in his arrest.

Police received credible information that he was living in the village, the official said, when asked how they identified the accused.