Manish Singh (inset), member of UP-based Subhash Singh gang, in Ahmedabad crime branch custody

Manish Singh, a member of the UP-based Subhash Singh Thakur gang, was caught by Ahmedabad crime branch about three days ago from Mumbai. It has now emerged that he had given a slip to Khadia police a year ago in Ahmedabad.
Involved in serious crimes like murder, kidnapping, and also believed to have played a part in the murder of actor Manisha Koirala’s secretary in 2001, only at the age of 15 years, Manish Singh (37) was wanted by Uttar Pradesh Police and Gujarat Police for 12 years.
Manish Singh had escaped from custody of UP Police in 2009 and since then he made his base in Vasai (Mumbai) and Chandkheda (Ahmedabad) under the identity of Shivlal Yadav alias Raju. He was the most wanted gangster in Uttar Pradesh and carried a reward of Rs 50,000. Before 2019, he used to come to Ahmedabad often, commit crimes and vanish in thin air. He was involved in snatching a gold chain worth Rs 23 lakh from a bullion trader in Manek Chowk area in 2019. He is said to have supplied illegal firearms that were used to commit murders in Gujarat.
In 2020, while probing the gold-snatching case, Khadia police got the first clue about him after getting footage from a petrol pump CCTV camera. His location was traced to Chandkheda. However, Khadia police were unaware that the chain-snatcher was none other than a wanted UP criminal Manish Singh.
On reaching his base in Chandkheda, cops learnt that he had shifted to Vasai in Mumbai. A Khadia police team reached Vasai and caught hold of ‘Shivlal Yadav alias Raju’. But the gangster hoodwinked the cops, saying he was Manish Singh and not Shivlal Yadav they were looking for. Cops had no other way but to return empty-handed.
However, a constable in the Khadia police team got suspicious after having seen Singh. He approached sub-inspector J B Budheliya of city crime branch and shared his suspicions.
The crime branch realised that the man in question was a dreaded criminal. The crime branch traced his location to Nalasopara in Mumbai and later to Evershine Society in Vasai.
After keeping a 12-day watch posing as car-cleaners and security guards, the crime branch sleuths nabbed Manish Singh on September 28. He is now in crime branch custody on a 7-day police remand. He will be handed over to the UP police after cops here are done with the probe against him.