Kawasaki, June 9 (ANI): Wanted Japanese terrorist Katsuya Takahashi, whom the police has been hunting since Aum Shinrikyo waged its nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway system in 1995, mobilizing thousands of officers over the last 17 years, has been found to be hiding in plain sight.
Takahashi, 54, the final Aum fugitive wanted in the terrorist attack, lived for a decade in a quiet residential area only about 10 minutes on foot from busy JR Kawasaki Station and just across the Tama River from the capital, that was once shaken by the doomsday cult.
"I didn't know him. If I had known him, I would have got the 10 million yen reward," The Japan Times quoted a passerby woman on a bicycle, as saying, who stopped in front of the apartment in Saiwai Ward where Takahashi lived.
The fugitive reportedly lived in the three-story apartment building for about 11 years, until last October when he moved into a construction company's dormitory in Kawasaki Ward.
Takahashi's quiet life was shattered following the arrest of Naoko Kikuchi, a fellow cult fugitive who once lived in the Saiwai Ward flat with him, on Sunday.
Kikuchi reportedly provided information on Takahashi, that forced him to flee the dorm after withdrawing 2.38 million yen in cash from his account in a small "shinkin" credit bank in Kawasaki, the paper said.
Media reports claimed that he also showed up briefly Monday at the construction company's office, but his whereabouts since being seen in a surveillance camera at the bank near the company is unknown.
The Metropolitan Police Department has reportedly deployed 5,000 officers in Tokyo on Friday for the manhunt.
Takahashi is wanted for allegedly driving one of the sarin-carrying cultists to a subway station before the gassing. (ANI)
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