Hyderabad: After years of wait, notorious gangster and fugitive Ayub Khan was arrested by the city police with the help of Mumbai airport immigration officials, following a lead the cops here got from Interpol.
A wanted criminal, Ayub Khan had multiple non-bailable warrants (NBWs), and a red corner notice was pending against him. He was arrested from Mumbai airport upon his arrival from abroad on Monday.
As many as eight murder cases, dozens of extortion complaints and land grabbing cases had been booked against him by the city police. He had been shuttling between Dubai and India using a fake passport for many years, police said.
Senior officials from South Zone said the two NBWs pending against him were being executed with this arrest, while probe and trials in other cases would be resumed. He would be booked under preventive detention act, by which bail is not possible. This will help cops keep him in jail for a while. Charminar ACP Ashok Chakravarthy said a rowdy sheet has been opened against Ayub. “There is also involve in an arms act case in which he had threatened his victims with swords,” he said.
Another official said the police is also investigating fresh charges against Ayub Khan for holding and using fake passports for overseas travel. He has been on the run since 2013. “He had been travelling to Dubai and back to India using fake passports. Every airport in the country was on alert with a red corner notice on him,” said an official.
Sources said that the city police did not arrest Ayub Khan for a while despite having information on his arrival in Hyderabad earlier this year. “He had came four times this year. He must have come via Nepal or other cities in India using his fake passport. But, police did not arrest him,” a source said.
Shahbaz had narrow escape from Ayub
In 2008, the then Telugu Desam minority cell president Shahbaz Ahmed Khan found himself in the jaws of death, when gangster Ayub Khan and his associates walked into his office at Masab Tank. They carried with them deadly weapons. An extremely cautious Shahbaz Khan had CCTV cameras installed in his office. Seeing the arrival of the gang on the screen, he made good his escape from the building.
After this, the state government provided security to the TD leader.
Shahbaz Khan, now an MIM leader, says he was just one of those who faced life threat from the gangster.
“I was lucky enough to escape being trapped. Many innocent people were killed by him and his gang,” he said.
