Govt employee to vegetable seller: How Delhi murder accused evaded arrest for 42 years, held after tip-off

Natthulal, a vegetable seller, allegedly killed Ashok Kumar due to personal enmity. He was finally apprehended in Hardoi during a renewed investigation.

A 65-year-old man’s 42-year-long run ended earlier this week when he was finally arrested in connection with a murder he allegedly committed in 1984 in west Delhi’s Vikaspuri area, police said on Saturday.

Police said Natthulal was a government employee posted in the social welfare department in Uttar Pradesh. (ANI file photo)

For all these four decades, the accused, identified as Natthu alias Natthulal, a resident of Hardoi in Uttar Pradesh, worked as a vegetable seller while frequently changing locations to evade arrest.

Police said Natthulal was a government employee posted in the social welfare department in Uttar Pradesh when he and his associate, Bhabhuti Prasad, allegedly killed Ashok Kumar, a resident of Sitapur, by repeatedly stabbing him in Vikaspuri district park. According to police, Prasad accused Kumar of making illicit advances towards his wife, and that personal enmity was the motive for the murder, said special commissioner of police (crime) HGS Dhaliwal.

Around three months ago, the crime branch’s team led by assistant commissioner of police (ACP) Satender Mohan and inspector Sunil Kumar Kalakhande relaunched the probe.

“The team went to Sitapur and Hardoi and found that the accused occasionally visited his village,” said an officer.

On August 18, they received a tip-off that the suspect had come to his village in Hardoi. The team laid a trap and arrested Natthulal while he was travelling from his village to Farrukhabad.

“Natthulal’s interrogation revealed that after consuming liquor in the park, he and Prasad killed Kumar,” added Dhaliwal.