Delhi Police Capture Notorious Fugitive Linked to Multiple Murders
Arrest of a Long-Standing Fugitive
The Delhi Police have apprehended a 49-year-old man who had been evading capture for 25 years in connection with several crimes. A senior police official provided this information.
According to the officer, the suspect is accused of renting taxis, murdering their drivers, and disposing of their bodies in remote forested areas of Uttarakhand, while selling the vehicles across the Nepal border.
Identification and Criminal Background
The individual has been identified as Ajay Lamba, also known as Banshi, who was wanted in four cases of robbery and murder in Delhi and Uttarakhand. The police stated that he had been declared a fugitive in all these cases, including a murder case registered in 2001 at the New Ashok Nagar police station.
Details of the Crimes
The officer revealed that Lamba was allegedly the main perpetrator of several heinous crimes committed between 1999 and 2001, during which he, along with accomplices, targeted taxi drivers, killed them, stole their vehicles, and disposed of the bodies in remote areas of Uttarakhand to conceal their identities.
Background of the Suspect
According to Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Aditya Gautam, Ajay, born in 1976 and originally from Krishna Nagar in Delhi, dropped out of school after the sixth grade and became involved in criminal activities at a young age. The Vikas Puri police had previously declared him a notorious criminal under the alias Banshi.
In 1996, he changed his name to Ajay Lamba and moved to Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh, where he committed crimes with associates Dheerendra and Dilip Negi.
Criminal Record and Recent Activities
The police reported that Lamba had never been arrested in connection with the four robbery and murder cases registered in Delhi, Haldwani, Almora, and Champawat, and had been declared a fugitive in all these cases. He faced multiple charges, including theft and possession of weapons, dating back to the 1990s.
The Deputy Commissioner noted that Lamba managed to evade capture for over two decades by continuously changing his location and identity. He lived in Nepal with his family from 2008 to 2018 before relocating to Dehradun.
In 2020, he became involved in drug trafficking and allegedly worked with a gang supplying cannabis from Odisha to Delhi and other parts of India.
The police revealed that he was arrested in 2021 by the Sagarpur police under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act and again in 2024 for a robbery at a jewelry store in Brahmapur, Odisha. He was out on bail in both cases.
The police confirmed that Lamba was captured in a coordinated operation in Delhi.