One episode in a television serial was enough to pierce Uttar Pradesh gangster Sri Prakash Shukla's well-concealed image. Shukla had allegedly been hired to kill Chief Minister Kalyan Singh.

An anonymous telephone call to Shoaib Ilyasi, producer of the serial, `India's Most Wanted', led to a police encounter with Shukla here on September 22, in which Shukla was killed.

According to Ilyasi, the call, made on September 21 from Ghaziabad, revealed that Shukla was seen in Ghaziabad alongwith his associates in a blue Cielo. ``Although the caller did not identify himself, the information was enough to nail Shukla,'' Ilyasi said.

He said the caller had also told him that Shukla and his two associates had been spotted at the residence of a ``well-known politician.'' He, however, declined to reveal the politician's name.

The information was promptly passed on to the Special Task Force, comprising 20members of the Delhi and Uttar Pradesh police, constituted to nab Shukla.

The alleged killer and his associates were headed for Palam airport in an attempt to escape to Ranchi, when the encounter took place. Shukla had a safe haven in Ranchi where another gangster, Suraj Bhan, allegedly supplied him arms and ammunition.

Shukla normally carried an AK-47 with him but on the day of the encounter, only two 0.38 revolvers were recovered, police said. Uttar Pradesh Additional Director General of Police, Ajay Raj Sharma, said most of the arms missing after the Purulia arms drop had found their way to Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh.

This was the second anonymous telephone call made to Ilyasi. An earlier call on September 10 at 11.30 am, had informed him that Shukla and his associates were seen in the Cielo near the All India Institute of Medical Sciences crossing. The information was passed on to the police, but they had lost sight of the vehicle.

Ilyasi said he was ``bombarded'' with threatening calls byShukla and his associates after the programme about the killer was aired on television on September 8 and 15.