Surat: After 25 years on the run following a dramatic jail escape, Navsari Local Crime Branch (LCB) police have finally arrested 48-year-old Shashibhushan Rajput, alias Satbhushan, a criminal wanted in multiple loot and robbery cases. Rajput, a native of Devariya district in Uttar Pradesh, had been lodged in Navsari sub-jail in 2000 as an undertrial. On May 27 of that year, he broke the iron grille of the jail bathroom using a hexo blade, scaled the main wall, and bypassed the electric fencing with the help of a mattress and bedsheets.LCB inspector VJ Jadeja said Rajput had been booked in loot, robbery, and Arms Act cases by police stations in Pardi, Valsad Rural, and Umargam in 1999. “After his escape, a case was registered with Navsari town police. Our team, including Inspectors RS Gohil and SV Ahir, tracked him for the past eight months. We received information that he was living in Palla village in Faridabad, Haryana, working as a painter. Officers posed as a cloth vendor, auto driver, and fruit seller to finally nab him,” Jadeja said.During his escape from jail, Rajput sustained a back injury that left him with a permanent ailment, affecting his mobility for the last 25 years. Over the years, he shifted across several states including Delhi, Karnataka, Kerala, and Haryana. He married a 22-year-old woman a few years ago and has a one-year-old child. Inspector Jadeja added that Rajput’s arrest in 2000 had disrupted his planned marriage at the time.
