3,300km hunt, 6-day operation: Delhi cops pose as vendors to nab man on run for 21 years

NEW DELHI: Delhi Police’s Crime Branch has apprehended three absconders involved in long-pending cases, including attempted murder and sexual assault. Executed over a six-day period ending May 4, the operation involved a four-member team tracking the fugitives across 3,300 kilometres through Bihar and Jharkhand.

Deputy commissioner of police (crime) Sanjeev Yadav said the first arrest involved Yudhishthir, wanted in a 2014 Pocso case in Rajouri Garden. The team conducted ground verification at over 30 transport hubs, finally locating him in Dumka, Jharkhand.

“After identifying him as a passenger tempo driver, cops rented a vehicle and posed as drivers and passengers to map his route. His location was pinpointed, and he was arrested on May 2,” he said.

He worked as a stone polisher in Delhi. After the incident, his wife left him; he later remarried and has three children. To evade arrest for 12 years, he frequently moved between Delhi and Jharkhand.

The team then moved to Purnia, Bihar, to apprehend Mohammad Akhlakh, wanted since 2014 in a sexual assault case in Ranhola. Akhlakh had spent over a decade working as a mason in Kerala, frequently changing mobile numbers and avoiding his native village. Following intelligence that he had returned home due to his mother’s illness, the team conducted a raid. Despite his attempt to flee across rooftops, cops apprehended him following a three-kilometre chase.

The final operation targeted Ram Kumar, who had been absconding for 21 years after an attempted murder case in 2005. Kumar had maintained a highly mobile lifestyle as a vegetable vendor in Bhojpur, Bihar, avoiding fixed residences or traceable communication. The police team found him by posing as vegetable vendors in a local market, allowing them to identify and detain him in Aarah.

This mission was characterised by continuous operational activity, with the team managing legal documentation and transit remands for the first two suspects while simultaneously pursuing the third.