New Delhi: For nearly 32 years, a robber who had allegedly strangled to death two sadhvis in an east Delhi ashram remained at large. On Friday, when police finally caught him in Mangolpuri, he was working as a packaging labourer.In 1994, Lalit, then allegedly part of a gang that had entered the ashram with the intention to rob it, disappeared after the crime and managed to duck the police radar for decades.Special CP (crime) HGS Dhaliwal said the two sadhvis, who used to live in the ashram, were strangled during a robbery. The robbers fled with cash, jewellery and other valuables. Lalit was allegedly one of the members of the group who had strangled the two women. Police said he later received cash and jewellery as his share of the loot.A murder and dacoity case was registered at Shakarpur police station under sections 396 (dacoity with murder), 302 (murder) and 34 (common intention) of the IPC.Sunil Kumar, Dilip Ram and Sushil were arrested during the investigation, but Lalit managed to remain at large.By Oct 1995, a court had declared him a proclaimed offender. But that was only the beginning of a decades-long cat-and-mouse chase.Police said Lalit remained in Bihar till 2000. He moved to Delhi after that and took up jobs as a packaging labourer at various manufacturing units.Unlike other absconding accused who are constantly on the run, the investigators said that Lalit managed to build a routine around ordinary work, allegedly keeping his past hidden while moving from one workplace to another.His life also moved forward. He married in May 2017 and now has a five-year-old son. But the 1994 case continued to hang over him.The crime branch recently revived efforts to trace him and looked for specific information about his whereabouts.The trail brought investigators to Mangolpuri Phase-II, northwest Delhi. After a discreet verification, the team located Lalit inside a factory. The man who had eluded the police net for more than three decades was finally taken into custody.His identity was verified through his Aadhaar card, which carried the name Lalit.
