Bengaluru man, who stole bicycle in 1985, arrested after 38 years: Report

A key factor that did not help police officials arrest Pashan Jan sooner was that he had relocated from KGF to Bengaluru, a few years ago. (Representational Photo).

Bengaluru police recently arrested a man, who had stolen a bicycle 38 years ago, in the KR Puram area located in the eastern part of the city, a Times of India report said.

The man, who identified himself as Pasha Jan, stole the bicycle when he was 22-years-old in 1985 and was arrested within a month by the police at the Kolar Gold Fields (KGF). However, later, he was produced before a court and granted bail.

38 years later the man, who is now 60 and drives an autorickshaw to make ends meet, was re-arrested by the city police. Lawyers said that approximately 200 warrants could have been issued in the man's name since 1985.

A key factor that did not help police officials arrest Jan sooner was that he had relocated from KGF to Bengaluru, a few years ago.

"I started looking at old files which were gathering dust as senior officers of the department have been stressing on solving long-pending cases,"  Manjunath L, a sub-inspector who took charge at a local police station in July, said.

Source in the police said that this case was the oldest which remained in the trial stage, due to the missing accused. Manjunath then directed his team to track down the man.

A three-member team then kept following Jan's relatives to know about his whereabouts and after a relative informed them he was residing in KR Puram, the team traced him to the location.

When the police reached his residence, the man said they had come looking for the wrong person. But he was eventually caught after the team took his fingerprints, which matched with those of the bicycle thief in 1985.

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