Case File | The Capital's A-Team to arrest ‘Proclaimed Offenders’

Proclaimed Offenders or POs are people who evade the law and abscond while facing criminal cases. Here's how the team headed by SI Jai Singh and ASI Inder Singh find these people and arrest them.

New Delhi: On September 3 in 1997, a murder was reported in Northeast Delhi's Gokulpuri. A woman in her early 20s was strangled to death by her husband. The next year, the man identified as Raj Kumar — then 25 — was declared a proclaimed offender (POs). Twenty years later in 2017, while riding a rickshaw in the lanes of Uttar Pradesh's Banda district, he was caught and arrested.

Locals, the officers said, help a great deal when they go on raids.  (Representative Image)

What is a PO?

A proclaimed offender is a person who evades the law and remains absconding while facing criminal cases that they are suspects in. Once declared as a proclaimed offender by the court, the person can be arrested at any time.

Sub-inspector (SI) Jai Singh is a Delhi Police officer who is known across ranks in the force for arresting proclaimed offenders of the Capital and has already held over 2,500 POs. He was with assistant sub-inspector (ASI) Inder Singh at a local police station in Banda on November 30 in 2017 and asked the station in-charge about Raj Kumar. They described him as a rickshaw-puller and showed them his photograph. "The sub-inspector refused to help us and said that all his staff was busy with election duty. I requested him again. He then called a man who used to rent his rickshaws in the area and was known to the SI. When the man came, we showed him the photograph," recalled Singh.

“Arey, ye admi to yahin rickshaw chalata hai... abhi railway station ke paas hi hoga (This man drives a rickshaw around here... he must be near the railway station),” the contractor told the officers. The two immediately hopped onto the bikes of two police officers from the local police station and rushed to the street near the railway station. Raj Kumar was spotted. He was ferrying a passenger. He was stopped and Inder Singh asked him, “Raj Kumar hai na tu? (You are Raj Kumar, right?)”. “No, I am Salim,” he responded.

How Raj Kumar became Salim was revealed later, but at that moment, he was apprehended, 20 years after being able to evade arrest.

SI Jai, ASI Inder and the team

SI Jai and ASI Inder are permanently stationed in a room on the ground floor of Mandir Marg police station. The room is filled with classic board files, two iron almirahs, a wooden table, and rickety chairs. There's also a single bed because there have been many nights they've had to spend at the station. Over the last eight years, since the inception of this team dedicated to arresting proclaimed offenders, they have arrested hundreds of them, while working out of this small room. Officials joined and left the team but the two — SI Jai and ASI Inder — have been working together to arrest POs since 2009 — much before this team was given a name.

Bringing out Raj Kumar's file — a case which the two officers vividly remember because of the story behind it — ASI Inder recalled that Raj Kumar was a rickshaw puller and “not a good-looking man”, which was why he was unable to get married, which he desperately wanted to do. One of his Muslim friends introduced him to a woman with the prospect of marriage, but she insisted that he changes his religion. For her, he spent two months learning how to do Namaz and eventually converted into a Muslim. The woman finally married him. However, for a better life and because of the suggestion from a friend, Raj Kumar reached Gokulpuri and started working here. “One fine day, he reached home early from work and caught his wife physically involved with his friend. He lost his temper at her, but forgave her only if she promised to cut contact with the man,” SI Jai said.

The wife, however, did it again. In a fit of rage, Raj Kumar strangled her to death. He was convicted of the crime in 2020 and is now serving life imprisonment.

“The district police couldn't catch him because he fled to Banda and had already changed his identity. We went to Banda at least three times to catch him in 20 years, but could never find him. He was living on rent in Banda and his family had also disowned him because he had changed his religion. Subsequently, his mother forgave him, and he started living with her, but that was also on rent,” ASI Inder said.

Arrests and promotions

This team has arrested the maximum number of POs this year so far and has been consistently among the top performers at casting a net for POs. In 2022, they've arrested 36 POs till April, the highest among all other teams and districts, according to Delhi Police data.

Earlier, technology like tracking location and social media didn't exist, which made the investigation tougher for officers, they said. They recalled that they had to visit police stations to get criminal dossiers of proclaimed offenders. “And it would be up to the station in-charge or duty officer if he would like to share the dozier or not,” SI Jai said. However, technology has ensured that criminal dossiers with all the information of the accused are accessible to them on the internal system. Now, it is easier for them to trace locations as well if they get a detail of the accused from family members.

ASI Inder and SI Singh, however, are not very tech-savvy, and so, the younger lot who join this team help them. Currently, head constables (HCs), Ravinder Kumar (30) and Shravan Deep, are working tirelessly to increase the number of POs they arrest.

What's their motivation? An out-of-turn promotion as soon as they arrest 80 POs. Most officials join this team as HCs and leave as ASIs. This promotion becomes their primary reason to join the team, because regular promotions can take decades, they said. “Once you join this team, you have to forget everything for a least a year or two and concentrate only on work. You can get information on a PO at any time, and you must act on it immediately,” HC Ravinder said.

Recently, three officials were promoted out of turn from this team and were transferred to other teams in the district, but they continue to help the team with achieving their targets.

Identifying POs

Talking about the process of identifying POs, SI Singh said that they physically go and ask for the PO list at police stations and then verify whether the person has been arrested from their court sources. The list is then segregated based on the state the offenders are from and their names go into the file of the offenders from that state. “We don't have the luxury of spending days on arresting one man. So, one way to arrest offenders is to travel on one route in a state and look for offenders who we could find there,” said SI Jai, adding that they make necessary calls and do their preliminary investigations before leaving.

Locals, the officers said, help a great deal when they go on raids.

The local factor

Recalling one such case, HC Shravan said that a case of rape and trafficking of a minor was reported in Nihal Vihar in 2016 wherein a minor girl was lured by a man and taken to Rajasthan, where she was sold twice. District police arrested three persons and recovered the girl, but the main accused Ram Akhtiyar Singh (62) remained absconding. Akhtiyar was declared PO the next year. “Attempts were made to arrest him, but he was a local goon who the police there were also a little wary of. He had local support as well. Every time the Delhi Police went to arrest him, he would get a tip-off and would leave,” the HC said.

However, sometime last year, this team managed to zero in on a local who was an arch-rival of Akhtiyar and agreed to help them arrest him. “He told us about his presence in his native village in Dholpur and three of us including Inder sir and Jai sir went to arrest him. Milk supplier that Akhtiyar was, the local had told us about his route he takes in the morning,” the HC said.

SI Singh recalled how the three police officers stood at strategic locations and sought help from locals and family members to stand on the route and share live updates as he crossed points on their trap. "And as we had decided, when he reached a junction where we were standing, we overpowered him," the officer said.

This team had arrested 90 offenders last year, according to police data, and has already arrested over 35 in the last four months of 2022. New Delhi district, till April 7, had arrested 46 POs in total - the highest number among all districts of the Capital.

After completing his innings in Delhi Police, SI Singh is due to retire on June 30 this year, but he wants to complete his goal - ensuring 80 POs are arrested while he is around so a Head Constable could become an ASI. “Kitne bana diye ji... bas ye ek aur ho jaaye asha hai (Have helped so many... I hope I can help one more).”