A 62-year-old man wanted in a murder case and believed to be dead has been nabbed after 31 years by Mumbai Police from Nalasopara area in neighbouring Palghar district, an official said.

The accused, identified as Deepak Narayan Bhise, was tracked after the police got his wife's mobile phone number.

He changed multiple locations before settling in Nalasopara where he was living in a rented accommodation with his family for the last two years, and used to take tree cutting contracts, the official said.

Bhise was accused of killing one Raju Chikna in 1989 and for murder bid on another person - Dharmendra Saroj.

He was granted bail in the murder case in 1992 but he never turned up for the case hearing in court. In 2003, the court declared him absconding and asked the police to trace him, the official said.

"Whenever police visited Bhise's residential address at Tulaskarwadi in suburban Kandivali, local people would tell us he might have died but we kept looking for him," he said.

During the search, police managed to get the mobile phone number of Bhise's wife and tracked him down to Nalasopara from where he was nabbed on Friday night, he said.

Bhise had settled in the locality with his wife, two sons and a daughter and used to take contracts for cutting trees, the official said.

Kandivali police station sub-inspector Nitin Satam said, "Accused Bhise have been arrested under Indian Penal Code Section 307 (attempt to murder) and lodged in a jail in Thane after being produced in a court. Further investigation is underway."

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