Calcutta, Nov. 24: He travelled a long route from Siliguri to Entally to escape the arms of the law. But they proved long enough, ending in his arrest from a hideout in Jorasanko area.

With the arrest of 28-year-old Sheikh Mehendi Hassan, said to be a terror of Siliguri and a cold-blooded killer, Calcutta police made their counterparts in the north Bengal commercial town heave a shy of relief.

Hassan was wanted in eight murder cases, including a father and his son, in north Bengal and Siliguri police were desperately looking for him for the past five years. A few weeks ago, he opened fire at the policemen in front of the residence of the additional superintendent of police in Siliguri.

The Siliguri police, however, have been maintaining that the shooting was carried out by one Sandip Sur, said to be a sharp-shooter and the bodyguard of arrested real estate mafia, Atri Sharma.

Teams from Siliguri police had come here several times to nab Hassan. “Sometimes, they sought our assistance. Besides, they also conducted raids silently without informing us. But each time, they had to return empty handed,” said Timir Bhattacharya, the officer-in-charge of Jorasanko police station.

A team of officers from Jorasanko police station tracked down Hassan around 2 pm today from a hideout near Calcutta morgue. “We were working on it for the past two months. Initially, we had information that Hassan had taken refuge in the Kalabagan area. But later we came to know through our sources that he was staying at his father-in-law’s house in Motijhil under Entally police station area,” stated OC Bhattacharya.

After receiving information early today, two officers in plain clothes, Salil Roy and Pradip Sengupta, laid a trap in front of the morgue. “We had now idea about his looks and even had not seen his photograph. As soon as one of our sources gave us an indication, we caught him,” said an official of the Jorasanko police station.

During the course of interrogation, police came to know that Hassan was equally infamous in Siliguri and its adjacent areas as a killer and notorious extortionist. He, along with four others who are in the custody of Siliguri police, ran a gang to extort money from the local businessmen. “Siliguri is the place where auction of several material, including railway iron scrap, takes place round the year. We preferred to target the auctioneers. Each of them had to pay us Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh after purchasing goods from the public sale,” Hassan said during interrogation.

Hassan committed the first murders in 1997. He killed both father Rana Ghosh, a businessman, and his son Rupam. “He never thought for the second time before killing someone who refused to pay him extortion money. He even murdered one of his associates Ashique last year,” said Bhattacharya. “Hassan murdered Ashique in a brutal manner. The victim’s head was smashed by an iron rod.”

Hassan was staying in the city since last July. “He visited Siliguri several times but came back. He knew the Siliguri police were looking for him desperately,” added OC Bhattacharya.