How a SIM card led to the arrest of gangster Munna Bajrangi

The first breakthrough came in 2009 when a Special Cell of Delhi Police was scanning call detail records (CDR) of Bajrangi’s close aides — Viraj and Babloo — and found that they were using a SIM card that had been used to make an extortion call in the past.

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“Police started checking their CDRs and found that they were in constant touch with several numbers used somewhere in Mumbai’s Malad area. A police team then reached Mumbai where they found Bajrangi’s aide Mahender alias Shetty,” a senior police officer said.

Police started tracking Shetty’s movements and found that he always made calls after boarding local trains. “After making calls, he would get off at a random stations and discard the SIM card. Police were tracking him, but they were not able to find out anything about Bajrangi as Shetty never made any calls to him. However, they found that he visited an apartment at the Siddhivinayak Society in Malad West every two weeks,” another officer said.

A police team was set up in an apartment adjacent to the one Shetty would visit. “They came to know that Bajrangi was hiding in a flat at Siddhivinayak Society, but he would never come out. After waiting for around 25 days, they arrested him when he was going with Shetty in an autorickshaw to make a extortion call on September 29, 2009,” the officer said.