For 35-year-old Shovran Shau, Jharkhand has long been the crime belt and Calcutta the safety net.

Shau, after hoodwinking police informers for over four years, finally fell to a swoop on Monday morning. Leader of a gang of bank-robbers, he was picked up from his rented flat in Sinthee. A revolver was found on him.

Shau?s arrest proved once again how gangsters from neighbouring states are using the city as a hideout. In October, another Jharkhand-based kidnapper and extortionist Dhananjay Pradhan was arrested from central Calcutta. He had taken refuge in the city for over two months.

Peeyush Pandey, deputy commissioner of police, detective department, said Shau had masterminded a bank robbery on July 27 in Dhanbad, cleaning out Rs 18 lakh in a daylight swoop. Since then, he was on the run, said Pandey.

City police acted on a tip-off ? an address ? provided by a team from Dhanbad. ?We started keeping an eye on a flat on Gaur Sundar Lane in the Sinthee police station area,? said an official. Police stormed the flat on Monday as soon as Shau entered.

According to Shau, he had rented the flat four years ago. ?He crossed over into Bengal whenever the cops were hot on his heels. He spent the last three months here,? the official said, adding that a hunt was on for his local contacts.