Patna, July 23: Bihar police want to book Durgesh Sharma, arrested on Saturday after remaining absconding for over six years, under the Crime Control Act to ensure speedy trial of the criminal cases pending against him.
The cops have come to know that the gangster invested in a big way in realty. "Some developers in Patna are under close surveillance of the police for being his realty business partners," said a senior police officer. Preliminary investigation found that two prominent builders were in constant touch with Sharma, once considered a close aide of slain ganglord Sultan Mian.
"He has amassed huge wealth in Patna and elsewhere by extortion," an officer said.
"Though he was on the run, his men used to collect extortion money from traders and builders in Patna," revealed a police officer present during Sharma's initial questioning.
The police's special task force (STF) said they arrested Sharma, who has at least 36 cases of murder, extortion, loot and abduction are pending against him in Patna district alone, from the state capital. The government had announced a reward of Rs 50,000 for the arrest of Sharma, whose name once spelt terror in areas under the jurisdiction of Digha, SK Puri, Rajeev Nagar, Patliputra and Buddha Colony police stations.
Inspector-general of police (Patna zone) Nayyar Hasnain Khan today told Patna senior superintendent of police Manu Maharaaj to submit a proposal to book Sharma under the Crime Control Act. If the high court accepts the government's proposal to book him under the stringent law, Sharma cannot obtain bail from a lower court for a year.
IG Khan said he told Maharaaj to submit a proposal to Enforcement Directorate to initiate the process of confiscating property Sharma had amassed, allegedly through unlawful means.
The gansgter, whose name figured in the list of district's top 10 criminals wanted by the police, had fled from Beur Central Jail in 2011 after furnishing fake bail bond papers of Patna High Court.
Patna SSP Maharaaj said Sharma managed to dodge the police twice in recent years. He was earlier arrested from Delhi and put behind the bars when Maharaaj was the city SP.
"We had to work hard and chalk out strategy meticulously to accomplish the task then. But he proved smart and continued to dupe the police," he added.
Patna police will take Sharma on remand for interrogation in connection with the murder of a jeweller, Ravikant, in Patna in 2016. Sharma had also allegedly threatened a number of developers and businessmen with dire consequences if they failed to cough up extortion money.
Sharma's wife, Kavita, claimed STF personnel in plainclothes caught her husband when he along with family members boarded Tinsukia Mail for Assam at Rajendra Nagar Terminal in Patna on Saturday.
"STF personnel took my husband (Durgesh) away and alighted from the train at Bakhtiyarpur (Patna rural) but directed our family members to continue the journey," she told reporters. "I got down from the train at Mokama and returned to Bakhtiyarpur to inquire about what happened on the running train. Only then did I come to know that police had arrested my husband."
