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Police nab Surla

Notorious gangster Surla, allegedly involved in the acid attack on former IAS officer and Janata Party Tamil Nadu unit president V S Chandralekha, was nabbed Thursday morning in Bombay.

He had escaped from a Madras sanatorium on January 2, where he had been admitted after over five years in prison.

The Bombay police has handed over the 32-year-old Surla (Ukkitha Tevar alias Muthu) to the Madras cops as per the instructions of the Mulund metropolitan magistrate. He is expected to be flown back in the evening.

Acting on a tip-off, the Tamil Nadu police had arrived on January 7. They chalked out a joint operation with the city police and at 0815 hours trapped the criminal at Bhandup, a suburb in north-east Bombay. Surla was not armed, and tried to run away.

Surla had contacted AIDS and was undergoing treatment in a sanatorium in Tambaram since November 29.

Police officials said he escaped to Tirupati by road and then to Bangalore, from where he slipped off to Bombay -- again by bus.

After Surla's arrest in May 1992, he was produced before the fourth sessions judge on October 28, 1997 where, along with three others, he attempted to assault the judge.

Subsequently, the Central Bureau of Investigation which probed the acid attack case, filed a petition before the trial court, dropping him from the case.

After this development, Surla moved the Madras high court seeking release on bail. The judge dismissed the bail application and directed the CBI to conduct a fresh probe.

UNI

EARLIER REPORTS:
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Advocates save TN judge's life as criminals go berserk

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