This was the 36-year-old Barot's second visit to Bharuch in the recent past. During his first visit, on May 14, the criminal who had been in Baroda Central Jail since July 1997 in connection with Bharuch businessman Manish Shah's abduction had been allowed to stop at Shah's Shalimar cinema.

Instead of buying incense sticks, as he said he was going to do, he allegedly went up to cinema manager Suresh Chauhan, and told him to tell Shah to reach a compromise in the abduction case or risk being eliminated. The manager subsequently filed an FIR in the Bharuch city police station against Barot.

On May 18, Barot was again taken to the Bharuch cinema in connection with his threat, the police told Express Newsline. The third show was just giving over when a youth drove up on a motorcycle and a handcuffed Barot pushed aside his escort policemen -- including PI G N Chavda -- jumped up on the bike and sped away, the police said. According to District Superintendent of Police N D Solanki, Chavda fired two rounds in the air from his service revolver to scare the criminal into stopping, but to no avail. Chavda then informed the police control room; a red alert was sounded all over the district and armed police parties were deployed at all possible escape routes.

Later, Solanki said, a Jambusar PSI Pandya spotted a motorcycle with a pillion rider near Naher village and hailed it to a stop. As it slowed down, the pillion-rider got off and disappeared into the roadside bushes, while the driver sped away towards Jambusar.

Meanwhile, Chavda and Solanki, who were chasing Barot, arrived at the spot and took up positions in the surrounding bushes. When Pandya flashed his torch to search for the criminal, the latter opened fire, but injured no one.

Solanki said he fired three rounds in self-defence, while Chavda fired two and Pandya one round. Though Barot fell to the ground -- it was then around 1 am -- it was only half-an-hour later that the policemen went up to the body and removed the revolver. The police claimed he was still alive and confessed to involvement in several kidnappings with Raju Rohida.

Barot was then taken to the Amod primary health centre and referred to the Bharuch Civil Hospital, which declared him dead on arrival, Solanki said.

A resident of Bapunagar in Ahmedabad, Barot was allegedly involved in a Rs 15 lakh loot in Bapunagar in 1990 and another one in Ellisbridge in 1992, a murder case in Naroda in 1992, the kidnapping of Vadodara builder Sanmukhlal Shah, Dhananjay Patel and Ashok Gupta in 1994, 1995 and 1996 -- some of which cases also involved Raju Rohida -- and one incident of firing each in Vadodara and Ahmedabad.

He was arrested in July 1997 in connection with Shah's kidnapping, along with 10 others. While two accused women got bail, the other eight are still in Baroda Central Jail.