Solving Crime: How a 1993 Mumbai riots accused evaded police for 29 years

Beig, however, failed to appear before the court for the case proceedings. Subsequently, in 2004, the court declared him an absconder and a standing warrant was issued against him.

When the police started looking for Beig, it came to light that the residential address mentioned in the case papers did not exist. “He used to stay at BIT Chawl on Mohammed Ali Road, which was demolished in the late 1990s. Initially, the police were unsuccessful in tracing Beig, as nobody knew where he was,” said an officer.

Following a tip-off, the Dongri police learnt that Beig stays at Kachwala building at Nal Bazaar. Over the years, police teams made several visits to his house but to no avail.

“He had added ‘Mirza’ to his name. So, whenever the police went to his house, we would ask for Atahar Beig Riyaz Beig but he would send the team away claiming that he was Atahar Beig Riyaz Beig Mirza. He would even show his Aadhaar card, which had ‘Mirza’ as his surname,” an officer from Dongri police station said. “As the name, address and photo mentioned in our records did not match his, our men often got confused and returned,” he added.

In this manner, Beig dodged the police for 29 years. Until August 2022 when a team led by Police Sub-Inspector Shyam Bhise got information that Beig was the same person that they were on the lookout for all this while.

“He owns a supari shop at Nal Bazaar. So one day, I decided to confront him after which we went to his shop early in the morning and stood next to him. I asked him, ‘Since when did you start using Mirza in your name?’… his expression gave him away. He was brought to the police station and during sustained interrogation, he confessed to the crime,” Bhise had said earlier.

In his confession, Beig allegedly revealed that he hails from Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh where people usually add Mirza to their name. “So he decided to take advantage of it and added Mirza to his name. Since then he started introducing himself as Atahar Beig Riyaz Beig Mirza,” said an officer, adding, “And as he had started growing a beard, his looks also changed in the last three decades, not matching our records.”