The accused had earlier slipped out of the hands of Uttar Pradesh Police while being escorted to court; had committed several murders since then
Mumbai Crime Branch (Unit IX) officers in Bandra have arrested a Malwani resident for possession of a country-made revolver, who later turned out be a killer who had murdered several people and had also fled from police custody.
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The accused, identified as Mohammed Dalam Qureshi (30), has a criminal history dating back to 2003 including several murders.
On Wednesday, Crime Branch officers received a tip-off that a man was roaming in Hill Road with a revolver. The police laid a trap and arrested Qureshi, who revealed that he had returned to Mumbai from Uttar Pradesh two days ago, where he had fled to after killing his wife in Navi Mumbai on October 17.
According to officers from the Crime Branch, Qureshi, a native of Azam Nagar in Bareilly, had been staying with his wife Heena Kamkesh Tanna in Navi Mumbai.
In his statement to the police, Qureshi said that Tanna was a commercial sex worker and used to supply girls, which he did not like. “Qureshi said that he killed Tanna by strangulating her after a fight, and fled to Uttar Pradesh. Since the two were not legally married, the police could not identify Tanna’s killer,” said SPI Sanjay Satardekar from the Crime Branch.
Qureshi also said that in 2003, he had fled from the custody of the UP police when they were taking him to court for the kidnapping of a minor girl. He had fled after offering to get cold drinks for the constables while they were having lunch.
Satardekar added that the accused had come to Mumbai after fleeing form Uttar Pradesh and had settled in the Malwani area in 2010. When Qureshi was involved with Tanna, he used to live with her in Navi Mumbai.
Police said that Qureshi had also confessed to killing a carpenter in Kalyan over a trivial issue and fleeing to Lucknow in 2010. He further confessed to murdering another man in Lucknow between 2009 and 2011.
Police are currently conducting investigations to determine the extent of Qureshi’s criminal history.u00a0