Wanted criminal found hiding as ‘fakir’
Surrounded by a motley bunch of quawwals and mystics, a group of vigilant-looking men made their way through the swarm of devotees thronging the sacred shrine of Mira Datar Dargah in Gujarat’s Mehsana.
Even as the poor were asking for alms and food was being served at the Dargah langar, the men closed in on a seemingly nondescript fakir silently sitting at one of the corners.
The fakir glanced at them; for a moment he looked bemused but slowly realisation and shock dawned upon his face, gradually the expression changing into that of resignation. After fleeing his native city Ajmer and eluding the Rajasthan police for eight years, the law had finally caught up with Mannu Punjabi.
“Punjabi was wanted for the last eight years in 4-5 cases pertaining to liquor smuggling and possessing illegal arms. He also had prior cases of assault and loot registered in his name and was absconding,” said Mukesh Yadav, assistant sub inspector, Alwar Gate police station, Ajmer.
The police too was surprised when an informant tipped them off that the 40-year-old Punjabi was spending his days posing as a fakir, offering ‘divine’ solutions to people’s ailments at the famous Mira Datar Dargah at Unjha in Gujarat’s Mehsana. “A team went there a few days back and after investigation came to know that Punjabi was living under the alias of Shamsuddin alias Shammi as a fakir in the Dargah,” said police.
What followed was the team from the Ajmer police bringing out a shell-shocked Punjabi out of the holy shrine, with his ascetic-façade crumbling and devotees taking in the entire scene with surprised eyes. “Punjabi’s mother lives in Ajmer and he thought that after leaving the city and taking shelter at a Dargah in a different state, he has managed to escape the law,” said Yadav.
After he was brought to Ajmer on Wednesday, Punjabi is cooling his heels at the jail, possibly pondering what went wrong in his near-perfect plan to evade law.