Just days before his daughter’s wedding, Mahesh Sindhi, a 53-year-old businessman from Ulhasnagar, Maharashtra, was arrested for allegedly stealing a motorcycle in Ahmedabad more than 30 years ago.
Sindhi believed the case was long behind him after starting a successful handicrafts wholesale business and raising a family. However, the Karanj police recently reopened the cold case related to a 1992 two-wheeler theft when Sindhi was a resident of Khanpur, Ahmedabad.
The police tracked Sindhi using technical surveillance and arrested him on Wednesday as part of a drive to resolve old pending cases. Inspector P T Chaudhary explained that most evidence, including the complainant, co-accused, and key witnesses, had passed away. The stolen motorcycle had been recovered years ago during a Lok Adalat, leaving little to prosecute except Sindhi himself.
Sindhi pleaded with authorities to delay the arrest until after his daughter’s wedding scheduled for next week. “He thought the case was settled by his lawyer and that he was a free man,” said Chaudhary. Despite his appeals, police could not accommodate the request due to the long-pending nature of the case.
