Mumbai: A 54-year-old advocate, who had been evading arrest for the past 15 years for his involvement in a Rs1-lakh cheating case, was caught hiding in a washing machine at his Juhu house on Monday, Hindustan Times reported.
For three hours, his wife stalled the Azad Maidan and Juhu police who had come looking for him. They finally found him under a pile of clothes inside the washing machine.
Vasant Wakhare, senior police inspector, Azad Maidan police station, said after the accused was declared an absconder by court for a 2002 cheating case, they began tracing him. Once the police commissioner ordered that absconding accused of previous cases be traced, we went looking for him at his house in Juhu, he added.
“The accused is also wanted in a Rs1-crore cheating case in Pune,” said Vakahre.
The police officers added that the accused had cheated three people to the tune of Rs1 lakh in 2002 on the pretext of getting them admissions in BEd course.
It took the cops three hours to convince his wife to let them in. However, even when they did finally enter his place they looked for him all over the three-bedroom apartment, but could not find him.
The police teams were about to give up the search, when they happened to pull a cloth from the washing machine where he was hiding.
The police have arrested the accused now and also lodged a complaint against his wife for obstructing a government official from doing his duty.
