Former gangster Abdul Wahab gives cops the slip

Even as a team of crime branch and special operation group officers spent the entire day at city airport, waiting for don Abdul Latif’s aide to turn up, the former gangster managed to leave the city.
The crime branch had received a tip-off that Abdul Wahab Sheikh would board an afternoon flight to Mumbai from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport on Thursday. Wahab was booked on 7.30 pm Haj flight from Mumbai the same day.
Wahab was expected to board a domestic flight to Mumbai at 12.30 pm, as international flights would be under strict vigilance by immigration authorities and airline staff.
The Special Operation Group (SOG) led by DYSP Tarun Barot, a crime branch team lead by Police Inspector Bharat Patel and a group of lady constables positioned themselves at the airport at 7 am on Thursday.
The team scanned the entire domestic terminal building and waited for Wahab to turn up, but in vain. When the counters of the last domestic flight to Mumbai scheduled at 6.15 pm were closed, the police team abandoned the watch, concluding that there was no way Wahab could reach Mumbai in time to board his Haj flight.
According to airport sources, officials and staff of Air India, the ground Haj handling agency of Saudi Arabian Airlines were also directed by the intelligence department to immediately inform officials if Abdul Wahab turned up for check-in.
However, sources confirmed that while police kept watch at the airport all day, Wahab boarded a flight 7 pm flight to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia from Mumbai airport on Thursday. The gangster had left by road for Mumbai on Wednesday night itself, sources said.
20/11/09 Vijay Zala and Akshay Kaushal/Ahmedabad Mirror.com

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Categories: Airports Nov 2009