Ahmedabad crime branch on Sunday apprehended a life convict in the 1992 Radhika Gymkhana murder case and the assassination of former Rajya Sabha member and Congress leader Rauf Valiullah and a member of Abdul Latif gang in Udaipur, Rajasthan, after he had been absconding for seven years following a parole jump in 2019, police said.He evaded arrest by continuously changing his identity, location and communication methods. (HT Sourced Photo)The accused identified as Mohammad Taslim alias Mohammad Umer Sheikh was sentenced to life imprisonment.According to police, he evaded arrest by continuously changing his identity, location and communication methods.“After skipping parole, he fled to Rajasthan, where he settled in Udaipur and worked as a small-time land and property broker. He got married and has two children born during the COVID period. He concealed his past by telling people, including some family members, that he had served his sentence and was a free man,” said Ajit Rajian, deputy commissioner of police, crime branch.About four months ago, the crime branch received inputs from Rajasthan about a man who claimed to have been released after conviction in the Radhika Gymkhana case. Police grew suspicious as no accused in the case had been acquitted or had completed his sentence.A crime branch team traced him to Rajasthan and carried out a coordinated operation to apprehend him. Legal procedures are now underway to transfer him back to Sabarmati Central Jail, DCP Rajian said.Also Read:‘Ghost’ clue cracks three-decade old murder, police find skeletal remains of woman who went missing in 1992Taslim was one of the most ruthless and trusted sharpshooters of the late Abdul Latif, a notorious bootlegger and gangster who ran one of Ahmedabad’s most feared criminal networks during the gang rivalry period of the 1990s, police said.On August 3, 1992, Taslim was part of an armed group that opened fire at Radhika Gymkhana club in Odhav area to target bootlegger Hansraj Trivedi. Nine persons were killed in the firing. According to police records, automatic weapons, including AK-47 rifles, were used in the incident, marking the first such use in a gang war in Gujarat.In October 1992, Taslim and his associates shot dead former Rajya Sabha member and Congress leader Rauf Valiullah in Ahmedabad in broad daylight. Police said the killing was linked to Valiullah’s efforts to expose the gang’s role in the Gymkhana case.