New Delhi: Four days after his escape from police custody, an alleged sharpshooter attached to underworld don Dawood Ibrahim's gang landed in the police net when he came to meet his friends in the capital.

Anil Soni alias Iqbal (32), hailing from Varanasi and who had come into contact with the Mumbai underworld in 1994, was arrested from near Kaya Maya hospital in Sangam Vihar in south Delhi when he came there to meet his friends, police said on Tuesday.

A loaded 9mm pistol with three live cartridges was recovered from his possession.

Iqbal, wanted in connection with a fake currency case, had escaped from a running train on October 18 while on his way back to Bikaner from Delhi after a court appearance, Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) Anil Shukla said.

He was undergoing ten-year imprisonment in a fake currency racket case in Rajasthan and was lodged in Bikaner jail.

After giving a slip to the Rajasthan police personnel who were accompanying him, Iqbal went to Bhatinda in Punjab and from there he proceeded to Delhi to meet his associates here.

"He was arrested following a tip off that he would be coming to the Sangam Vihar area to meet his friends," Shukla said.

During interrogation, Shukla claimed, Iqbal admitted his connection with the Dawood Ibrahim gang and his involvement in cases of fake currency distribution and extortion.

Iqbal was arrested by the Rajasthan Police with fake currency having a face value of Rs 35 lakh. He was also allegedly involved in extorting money from a businessman of Lodhi Colony in 1999.

He came to Mumbai in 1993 and joined the underworld in 1994 and then started extorting money.

In the year 1999, when pressure of Mumbai police grew, he shifted his area of operation to Delhi. He was arrested in fake currency case under Darya Ganj police station.

Source : PTI