20 years on, Pune cops nab man who escaped

In 1998, Pune police had faced major embarrassment when 14 undertrials had managed to give them a slip when they were being taken to court . 

Now 20 years later, Pune police have managed to arrest one of the accused, who is now 54 years old. 

After the undertrials escaped, police had managed to arrest 10 of them but Ram Yallappa Sonawale, the 54-year-old, had managed to dodge police before he was finally nabbed by the unit I of the crime branch from Pune’s Shivajinagar railway station area. With his arrest, police have now managed to arrest back 11 of the 14 undertrials. 

Sonawale was arrested on charges of attempt to murder in 1998. He, along with the others who were arrested in different cases, were being taken to a local court for regular hearing. After the hearing, they were being taken back to Yerawada police station when one of the accused took out his shirt and set it on fire. The other accused started shouting that the police van had caught fire. When the cops stopped to check, they all managed to escape. 

According to police, after escaping, Sonawale had taken shelter in Shirdi. Senior inspector Nitin Bhosale Patil, in charge of unit I of Crime Branch told DNA, “After escaping, Sonawale was living a very low-key life in Shirdi. He was doing some labour work and was staying alone.”

Sonawale had come to Pune for some work when the police got a tip-off.