Mumbai, Sep 5 (IANS): A notorious criminal wanted in connection with several major crimes, including the murder of a BJP leader from Uttar Pradesh, has been nabbed from Mumbai suburbs where he was quietly engaged in selling fruits, the police said here on Saturday.

The accused Aashu (32), alias Praveen alias Akash Rajendra Singh, is considered a key member of the dreaded Mirchi Gang of western UP, who had allegedly killed local BJP leader Rakesh Sharma at Dhaulana in Hapur district in September 2019.

Later, he and his accomplices had allegedly gunned down a prominent Noida industrialist named Gaurav Chandel on January 6, 2020, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Akbar Pathan told IANS.

The accused also has another 17 serious cases of murder, kidnappings, extortion and other gangland crimes registered against him in UP, Haryana and Delhi, but he escaped the clutches of the law since over a year and carried a reward of Rs 250,000 on his head.

"After he absconded since one year, the accused was moving around in different cities in Punjab, Haryana and Delhi before finally coming to Mumbai where he worked as a fruit-seller," Pathan said.

The accused kept changing his identity and appearance and after the Crime Branch Unit XI sleuths tracked his movements through a network of informers, he was arrested from the Jogeshwari suburb on Saturday morning.

The accused has confessed to his crimes and has been handed over to the UP Police for further action, Pathan added.