Latur (PTI): Police have arrested an absconding accused involved in a Rs 4,000 theft case registered nearly 20 years ago, a period during which he kept changing his location and was recently found working as a sugarcane cutter in Latur district of Maharashtra, officials said on Tuesday.

The accused, Babu Laxman Sankole (41), a resident of Budhoda village under Ausa tehsil of Latur district, was arrested on Monday and produced before a local court, which remanded him to judicial custody till January 27, they said.

The accused was wanted in a theft case registered at the Shivajinagar Police Station in Latur and had been evading arrest for the past nearly two decades. As the accused kept changing his place of residence, police were unable to trace him, and the case was eventually kept in a dormant file.

However, a special squad of the Latur police reopened the case and pursued it meticulously.

On Monday, the special squad received information that Sankole was currently residing on Yakatpur Road in Ausa tehsil and working as a sugarcane cutter in the Kamalpur-Ujani area, said the officials.

After verifying the information, the police laid a trap and detained the accused and later placed him under arrest.

According to case details, one Arvind Vitthalrao Bhosale, a resident of Shahupuri Colony, Latur, had reported that on July 10, 2006, at around 10 pm, an unknown thief stole a car stereo worth approximately Rs 4,000 from his car parked outside his house.

Following the complaint, a case was registered at the Shivajinagar Police Station under IPC section 379 (punishment for theft).

The accused was initially arrested on July 14, 2006, and was later granted bail. He began remaining absent from court proceedings and later disappeared.

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Mumbai (PTI): Veteran screenwriter Salim Khan suffered a brain haemorrhage which has been tackled, is on ventilator support as a safeguard and stable, doctors treating him said on Wednesday, a day after he was admitted to the Lilavati Hospital here.

The 90-year-old, one half of the celebrated Salim-Javed duo which scripted films such as "Sholay", "Deewar" and "Don" with Javed Akhtar, is in the ICU and recovery might take some time given his age.

"His blood pressure was high for which we treated him and we had to put him on a ventilator because we wanted to do certain investigations. Now the ventilator was put as a safeguard so that his situation doesn't get worse. So it is not that he is critical," Dr Jalil Parkar told reporters.

"We did the investigations that were required and today we have done a small procedure on him, I will not go into the details. The procedure done is called DSA (digital subtraction angiography). The procedure has been accomplished, he is fine and stable and shifted back to ICU. By tomorrow, we hope to get him off the ventilator. All in all, he is doing quite well," he added.

Asked whether he suffered a brain haemorrhage, the doctor said, "Unko thoda haemorrhage hua tha, which we’ve tackled. No surgery is required.

As concern over Khan's health mounted, his children, including superstar Salman Khan and Arbaaz Khan, daughter Alvira, and sons-in-law Atul Agnihotri and Aayush Sharma, have been seen outside the hospital along with other well-wishers. His long-time partner Akhtar was also seen coming out of the hospital.

Khan, a household name in the 70s and 80s, turned 90 on November 24 last year. It was the day Dharmendra, the star of many of his films, including "Sholay", "Seeta aur Geeta" and "Yaadon Ki Baraat", passed away.

Hailing from an affluent family in Indore, Khan arrived in Mumbai in his 20s with dreams of stardom. He was good looking and confident he would make a mark in the industry as an actor. But that did not happen. And then, after struggling for close to a decade and getting confined to small roles in films, he changed lanes.

He worked as an assistant to Abrar Alvi and soon met Akhtar to form one of Hindi cinema's most formidable writing partnerships. They worked together on two dozen movies with most of them achieving blockbuster status.

Other than "Sholay", "Deewar" and "Don", Khan and Akhtar also penned "Trishul", "Zanjeer", "Seeta Aur Geeta", "Haathi Mere Saathi", "Yaadon Ki Baarat" and "Mr India".