New Delhi, March 1 () A man wanted in the kidnapping and murder of a school boy in Delhi’s Kalkaji in 2010 and had been on the run since then, was arrested in Pune, an officer said on Wednesday.
The accused identified as Gurnam Singh alias Rangeela, a resident of Khudda village in Punjab’s Hoshiarpur district, had changed his physical appearance after the incident to evade arrest.
A reward of Rs 50,000 was also declared on information leading to his whereabouts.
According to the police, a woman lodged a complaint with the Kalkaji police station in August 2010 after her son did not return home from school.
“In between, she came to know that the body of a student was found on the railway track between Okhla and Tughlakabad railway stations. She went there and to her horror, it was found to be her son’s body. A kidnapping and murder case was registered,” Ravindra Singh Yadav, the Special Commissioner of Police (Crime), said.
During investigation, three accused were identified, who were staffers of a ‘blueline bus’ and had indulged in beating the deceased boy.
But none of them turned up for investigation and accordingly, all the three were declared absconders by a court.
On February 19, the Crime Branch succeeded in tracing and arresting one of the accused, Bharat Lal from Sheohar, Bihar.
“Now, the team has arrested the second accused who was absconding in the case after receiving inputs that Gurnam had changed his physical appearance and was frequently changing hideouts,” said Yadav.
“Gurnam was apprehended from Pune. In order to trace and arrest the accused, the team travelled more than 5,000 km within a week. The accused had changed his physical appearance completely by growing his hair, beard and wearing a turban.”
On interrogation, Gurnam admitted his involvement in the incident and said that he knowingly never remained in touch with his family residing at his native village due to fear of arrest.
“After the incident, he shifted from Delhi to Punjab, Assam and then Maharashtra, and hid by way of doing different work. He is a vagabond, unmarried and having no permanent or temporary residence.
“Gurnam was a helper on the blueline bus at the time of incident. He had been working a labourer in a stone crusher plant during day time and used to spend nights as a vagabond,” the top officer added.
ssh/ksk/