Tihar fugitive tracked down after visit to IVF clinic to meet wife

Sohrab, branded a “serial killer” by the Uttar Pradesh Police, had slipped out of Delhi earlier this year after jumping three-day parole granted to him in May.

Days after Mohammad Sohrab – wanted in more than 30 cases of murder, extortion and robbery – was finally tracked down in Kolkata following his escape from Tihar jail, police officers said they were able to locate him only because he walked into an IVF clinic where he had gone to meet his wife, also a fugitive, as the couple sought fertility treatment.

Days after Mohammad Sohrab was finally tracked down in Kolkata following his escape from Tihar jail

Sohrab, 38, branded a “serial killer” by the Uttar Pradesh Police, had slipped out of Delhi earlier this year after jumping three-day parole granted to him in May.

Sohrab’s criminal history spans nearly two decades and includes the killings of a former Bharatiya Janata Party councillor in Aminabad, the grandson of a former MP in Sambhal and the owner of a jewellery store, police said.

In 2007, he was named in a triple murder in Lucknow but escaped police custody soon after. He was eventually arrested by the Delhi Police Special Cell in 2011 and lodged in Tihar, where he remained until his brief parole earlier this year.

Aalap Patel, DCP (Special Cell), said the search began in the Shahdara area based on preliminary leads but soon expanded across states. “We then started looking in Lucknow where he was notorious as a serial killer. We visited Barabanki, Bahraich, Moradabad, Nanpara near the India–Nepal border, and Kolkata,” Patel said.

Investigators said they eventually received information that he had moved to Kolkata. His location was finally confirmed when they discovered he had been enquiring about IVF centres for his wife’s treatment. “He had identified a clinic near Park Street. He was meeting his wife and taking her to the doctor when we caught him inside the clinic on Tuesday. He posed as a bike taxi rider,” the DCP said.

Both Delhi and UP Police had been searching for him for months, eventually uncovering his new identity, his Kolkata hideout and the fact that he had taken up work as a bike taxi driver using an app to support himself and his wife.

Investigators added that he and his wife frequently changed locations while remaining on the run. “On the day he planned to take his wife to the clinic, he was held,” an officer said.

Sohrab has been placed on a three-day transit remand. Delhi Police will question him before sending him back to Tihar.