In a remarkable turn of events, a notorious buffalo thief who had eluded the authorities for an astonishing 57 years has finally been arrested in Maharashtra. The arrest brings an unexpected closure to a case that had remained unsolved for over half a century.
The fugitive, identified as Rajendra Patil, had been on the run since 1966 after allegedly stealing several prized buffaloes from a village in Belagavi, Karnataka. Patil’s audacious theft had left villagers baffled, and despite numerous efforts by the local police at the time, he managed to evade capture.
The breakthrough in this long-standing case came when the Karnataka police received a tip-off about Patil’s whereabouts in a remote village in the state of Maharashtra. Acting swiftly on this information, a joint team of Karnataka and Maharashtra police officers launched an operation to apprehend the fugitive.
Rajendra Patil, now 76 years old, was taken into custody without incident. Authorities confirm that he had been living under an assumed identity in Maharashtra for several decades. During his arrest, Patil reportedly expressed surprise and admitted to his true identity when confronted by the police.
Speaking about the arrest, Superintendent of Police, Belagavi, Ramesh Patil, said, “This is a truly extraordinary case. We never gave up hope of bringing this fugitive to justice, and the persistence of our officers and the information from the public finally paid off.”
The stolen buffaloes, which had remained a mystery for all these years, were never recovered. It is believed that Patil had either sold them or they had long since passed away. However, the villagers who had suffered the loss of their prized livestock decades ago expressed relief at the news of Patil’s arrest.
Rajendra Patil now faces charges related to the theft of the buffaloes, as well as possible charges related to his long evasion of the law. Legal experts anticipate that the legal proceedings will be complex due to the sheer duration of the case.
The bizarre saga of the Karnataka buffalo thief, who managed to avoid capture for nearly six decades, has once again captured the imagination of the public, highlighting the tenacity of law enforcement agencies in their pursuit of justice, regardless of the passage of time.
