60-yr-old, part of Maoist group in 90s, arrested after 26 yrs

Police are now probing the identity and role of people who may have helped Pandit evade arrest all these years

A 60-year-old man, who was part of a Maoist group in Bihar during the early 1990s and had murdered a Bihar police officer in November 1996, was arrested from Pul Prahladpur in southeast Delhi after 26 years, Delhi police said on Saturday.

The suspect, Kishun Pandit, was arrested from Pul Prahladpur in southeast Delhi on Friday. (Sourced)

Police identified the suspect as Kishun Pandit and said that he was living in Faridabad and went by the name of Sulender Pandit. Police are now probing the identity and role of people who may have helped Pandit evade arrest all these years.

Deputy commissioner of police (crime) Rohit Meena said Pandit’s family members in Bihar had started a rumour about Kishun’s death in a train accident and even performed his final rites in the late 1990sto end Bihar Police’s search for him.

DCP Meena said Pandit was the second in command of the Maoist group, which was locally called the IPF Maale.

“He was on the run for 26 years. On November 23, 1996, he along with around 2,000 members of the outfit, had surrounded a police team in Punpun (Patna) and attacked them. One police officer died in the attack while several others were injured,” said DCP Meena, adding that Pandit and others also robbed a rifle and 40 bullets that day.

Bihar Police arrested 31 persons after the incident and in 1998, Bihar police had also declared a reward for his arrest.

Police records also showed that Pandit was involved in a kidnapping case in 1995.

Narrating the sequence of events that led to Pandit’s arrest, DCP Meena said that on April 7, a crime branch officer received information about the fugitive former leader of the IPF Maale living in a different name in the outskirts of Faridabad. Subsequent investigation revealed that the man was involved in the murder of a Punpun police station officer 26 years ago but had never been caught.

Delhi police said that they formed two teams to work on the case. “One police team was sent to collect information from Punpun, Bihar, while another was tasked with nabbing the fugitive if the information was found to be true. It was difficult to trace records at the Punpun police station because the incident happened 26 years ago. Most police officers there were newly posted and had no knowledge about the incident. While enquiring, we found the inputs to be credible. Also, there was a notion among locals that Pandit had died as his family had performed a symbolic last rites... Local police had also stopped the search for the accused, believing the rumour of his death,” said DCP Meena.

Subsequently, the second police team laid a trap and arrested Pandit from a CNG petrol pump in Pul Prahladpur, south east Delhi on Friday.

“Initially, he posed as a man named Sulender Pandit. But we managed to trace an old Bihar land record from him, in which his name was there. During questioning, he broke down and confessed to the crime. We also recovered an Aadhaar card from his wife, in which she had mentioned her husband’s name as Kishun Pandit,” DCP added.

According to police, Pandit allegedly confessed that he had joined the Maoist outfit. “In 1996, Devender Singh (the district commander of the outfit at the time) was murdered by unknown assailants. Police were taking away the body for legal proceedings on this. Pandit, along with his associates, attacked the police party, killing one police officer. They took the body and also robbed a rifle,” added DCP Meena.

Delhi police are now investigating how Pandit managed to evade arrest all these years and are probing if he received help from people.