Two-year hunt for criminal ends, cops find he's been in jail for 2 weeks

PUNE: The Pune police have been looking for Laxman alias Lakhya Jadhav (30) for the past two years. Little did they know that the criminal on police records has been hiding in plain sight ? Jadhav has been in Yerawada central prison under a fake name for the past two weeks.
Jadhav, who was going by the name Santosh Kalshetti, was arrested by the Pune rural police in a vehicle theft case recently.But it was only on Monday that the police came to know that Kalshetti was, in fact, Jadhav.
Constable of the anti-organized crime cell (south region) of the crime branch, Rajnarayan Deshmukh, who has been trailing Jadhav, got a tip-off informing him of the disguise. The crime branch team, led by inspector Prabhakar Dhamale, took Jadhav into custody from Yerawada prison on Monday.
Jadhav has 15 cases registered against him in the different police stations in the city and the district.
In June 2012, Jadhav had shot Vinayak Jade, an employee of a city-based builder, at a point blank range in an attempt to extort money from builder Sheshram Chaudhari.
On June 18, 2012 and June 26, 2012, Jadhav had called Chaudhari and demanded Rs 10 lakh. Later, in September, Jadhav and his accomplices fired at Chaudhari's bungalow in Mahatma Society in Kothrud. The bullet pierced through the window pane and landed in the drawing room. Following the incident, the builder was given police protection.
In December the same year, he fired two rounds at a restaurant near Dahanukar colony on Karve road. Police suspect Jadhav wanted to extort money from the owner.
The crime branch has been trying to track Jadhav down since the incident, but he managed to flee the city after every crime. "He used to stay in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Bihar under fake identities," Dhamale said.
He said that the crime branch received a tip-off that Jadhav was in Shirur. "We had laid several traps in Shirur and Shikrapur area, but Jadhav was not traceable as he was using different names," Dhamale added.
On July 30, the Shirur police arrested one Santosh Kalshetti in a vehicle theft case and sent him to Yerawada prison after his police custody was over. "We got a tip-off that Kalshetti was none other than Lakhya Jadhav," Dhamale said.
Investigations have revealed that since the past two years, Jadhav and his accomplices committed several crimes, including robberies, extortion and vehicle thefts. They used to hire a vehicle from a tour operator, thrash and dump the driver and flee with the vehicle. "Jadhav also got contact numbers of builders and traders from the sign boards put up at construction sites and demand money from them," Dhamale added.
Pune: The city police have been looking for him for the past two years while Laxman alias Lakhya Jadhav (30) a criminal on police records was in the Yerawada central prison since past 14 days. Jadhav, who was using a fake name as Santosh Kalshetti, was lodged in the prison after he was arrested by Pune rural police in a vehicle theft case recently.
Police constable of anti-organized crime cell (south region) of the crime branch Rajnarayan Deshmukh, who was continuously following Jadhav's trail, got the tip-off that the vehicle thief Santosh Kalshetti who is already in jail, is none other than Lakhya Jadhav. The crime branch team led by inspector Prabhakar Dhamale took Jadhav into custody from the Yerawada prison on Monday.
The suspect Jadhav has 15 cases registered against him in the different police station in the city as well as in the district.
In June 2012, Jadhav had shot Vinayak Jade, an employee of a city based builder at a point blank range in an attempt to extort money from builder Sheshram Chaudhari. On June 18, 2012 and June 26, 2012 Jadhav had called Chaudhari and had demanded ransom for Rs 10 lakh from him. Later, in September, Jadhav and his accomplices fired a bullet at Chaudhari's bungalow in Mahatma society in Kothrud to threaten him. The bullet had pierced through the window pane and landed in the drawing room of the bungalow. Following the incident the police had given protection to the builder.
Later, in December, 2012 he had fired two rounds at a restaurant located near Dahanukar colony on Karve road. The police had suspected that Jadhav had opened fire on the restaurant in an attempt to extort money from the owner, said a police officer from the crime branch.
Since the incident the crime branch was trying to track Jadhav. However, after every crime, he used to escape out of the city. "He used to stay in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Bihar under fake identities," Dhamale said.
He said that the crime branch got a tip-off that Jadhav was staying at Shirur. "We had laid several traps in Shirur and Shikrapur area. But, Jadhav was not traceable as he was using different names," Dhamale said.
On July 30, the Shirur police had arrested one Santosh Kalshetti in a vehicle theft and sent him to Yerawada prison after his police custody was over. "We got the tip-off that Kalshetti was none other than Lakhya Jadhav. We took him into custody," Dhamale said.
The investigations have revealed that since last two years, Jadhav and his accomplices had committed several crimes including robberies, extortion and vehicle thefts. They used to hire a vehicle from a tour operator, they then used to thrash and dump the driver and used to flee with the vehicle. "Jadhav also used to get the contact numbers of the builders and traders from the sign boards put up at construction sites and used to demand extortion from them," Dhamale said.