2 including mastermind in last year's Hazrat Nizamuddin murder-dacoity case held: Delhi Police

New Delhi, Sep 4 (PTI) Two wanted criminals, including one who carried a reward of Rs 50,000 on information leading to his arrest, have been nabbed for allegedly killing a doctor and looting his house in southeast Delhi's Hazrat Nizamuddin area last year, police said on Thursday.

The Crime Branch of the Delhi police apprehended Pankaj Narjari (30), a resident of Assam's Sonitpur, and "mastermind" Prem Bahadur Nepali alias Devraj (42), a native of Nepal's Chitvan district, on Wednesday from near the Dudhwa National Park along the Indo-Nepal border, close to Dhangadhi.

According to police, the two men were finally tracked down after a chase of nearly 3,000 kilometres across several states. They were on the run for more than a year and were declared proclaimed offenders in multiple cases.

On May 10, 2024, a PCR call was received about the killing of a man at Jangpura Extension. On reaching the spot, police found Dr Yogesh Chander Paul (63), a medical practitioner, lying dead in the kitchen of his residence. The house was ransacked, indicating robbery.

A case of murder and robbery was lodged at the Hazrat Nizamuddin police station.

CCTV footage revealed the involvement of multiple persons in the crime. It was found that the victim's domestic help, Basanti, had provided critical information about the family and valuables in the house to her associates.

During the course of the probe, several accused, including Basanti, Vishnuswaroop, Himanshu and Akash, were arrested.

However, Narjari, who carried the Rs-50,000 reward on information leading to his arrest, and Bahadur, the alleged mastermind who had concealed his true identity even from the co-accused, remained untraced.

Two others, Bheem and Varsha, are still absconding, a police officer said.

On receiving information regarding the movement of the two wanted men, police conducted multiple raids across Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, before closing in on the duo near the Nepal border.

Police said it has emerged during the interrogation that the gang used Nepalese women as domestic workers to collect information about households, particularly targeting elderly couples or senior citizens living alone. Once the information was gathered, the gang carried out robberies.

In the present case, Basanti, who worked as a maid in the physician's house, had informed Varsha, the wife of Bheem, about cash and jewellery in the house. The information reached Vishnuswaroop, who then roped in Bahadur and Narjari for the robbery.

The accused had conducted reconnaissance of the house and the physician's clinic before striking on May 10 last year.

On the day of the incident, when the victim returned home and his wife was at work, they forcibly entered the house, overpowered him, tied him up and strangulated him to death, before looting jewellery and cash, police said.

They said Narjari had studied up to Class 10 in Arunachal Pradesh and ran away from home at an early age. He was earlier arrested in 2016 for a robbery in the Mayapuri area and was subsequently declared a proclaimed offender after he failed to appear in court.

He came in contact with Bahadur during his jail term and joined his gang after being released. Bahadur, originally from Chitvan in Nepal, had come to Delhi in 1995 to work as a domestic help.

Over time, he drifted into crime and built a network of burglars. He faces several cases of robbery, theft and dacoity registered at police stations across Delhi, including Gandhi Nagar, Janakpuri and Mangolpuri.

Police said the gang has been operating in multiple states, including Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Delhi, and its members often flee to Nepal after committing crimes to evade law enforcement.

Further investigation is underway to trace Bheem and Varsha, who are suspected to have played crucial roles in the conspiracy. PTI BM SHS RC