Absconding for 14 years, man found hiding in washing machine!

• He was sent to judicial custody on Tuesday.

A 54-year-old man who gave police the slip and managed to evade arrest for the past 14 years was finally caught hiding inside the washing machine in his house in Azad Maidan, Juhu, Mumbai.As part of the initiative to nab proclaimed offenders, Mumbai Police began tracing Manoj Tiwari whose name was in the wanted list of Azad Maidan police station, according to an India Today report. Tiwari is accused of cheating three people and taking money from them promising admission in post graduation course in 2002. He is also wanted in a case in Pune where he duped people of crores of rupees.

On Monday when police officials reached Tiwari's house for a search operation, they were stopped by his wife who obstructed them from entering the house for three hours. Tiwari's wife claimed to the police officials that her husband was not in the house and claimed to get an advocate along. She finally allowed the cops to search the house after long debate.

The officials however did not find Tiwari in the house but decided to conduct another round of search as they believed that he was hiding somewhere in the house itself.

The police once again scanned through the 3 bedroom apartment and that is when one of the constables opened the washing machine lying in the house and found Tiwari hiding under a pile of clothes.

Senior police inspector Vasant Vakhare of Azad Maidan police station said that after the accused was declared an absconder by court he had been on the run and had also shifted houses to avoid getting caught.

"After the police commissioner gave orders to trace absconding accused of previous cases, we launched a manhunt to nab Tiwari. We found through electronic surveillance that he stays in a high profile housing society in Juhu," said Vakhare.

He was sent to judicial custody on Tuesday.