Mumbai: Cops turn bhajiwala, doodhwala to crack 30-year-old assault case

Rama Shankar Kale allegedly attacked a woman with a chopper and iron rod after a fight occurred in Kandivli East in

A 57-year-old man who allegedly grievously assaulted a woman in 1993 and absconded all these years ran out of luck after the Samta Nagar police dusted off a few old files to renew their focus on pending cases. The cops nabbed Rama Shankar Kale on October 20 after posing as milkmen, vegetable vendors, courier boys and postmen to zero in on him.

The police said Kale was on the most wanted list of the Mumbai police after he attacked a woman with a chopper and iron rod in 1993. "He was picked up by our special squad team which has been formed only to solve cases that have been pending for years," said Narendra Shinde, senior inspector of Samata
Nagar police.

The police said Kale, then an auto driver, targeted the woman following a fight between two groups in Kandivli East in 1993. "An FIR was registered…but he remained absconding… After I took charge of Samata Nagar police station, a special squad was formed under the direction of my seniors only to solve pending cases," Shinde told mid-day.

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The senior inspector said their squad received a tip-off that Kale was living in Kandivli but as it had no clue about his current appearance or address, a lot of groundwork had to be done in order to nab him.

"Every movement of Kale was closely observed by our team. The officers would change their get-up and become milkmen and vegetable vendors to roam door-to-door in the area only to ascertain that the accused was still at the same place," he said. "In the afternoon, another member would don the uniform of a postman and carry a sling bag to deliver letters, while another would dress up like a courier boy to gather information about him and click his photographs," he added. The team also trailed Kale at a local market and to a tea shop to understand his habits, said the officer.

Once the details collected were matched with the police records, the squad took Kale into custody, said Shinde. "Kale pretended he was innocent. He had not even told his children that he was a wanted criminal. His daughter is a criminal lawyer practising in Dindoshi court while his Kale's son is studying law. After we placed the evidence in front of him, Kale confessed. He was then produced in a court which remanded him in judicial custody," said Shinde.

Revealing why action hadn't been taken against Kale for so many years, Shinde said, "He had been moving across Maharashtra but after the special squad was formed, we changed our priority to make breakthroughs in unsolved cases. Our priority is to clear the pendency at the police station. This is the first such case we solved in the recent times."