Gurugram: Dacoity, murder convict arrested after 30-year long search, say police

The suspect did not have an Aadhaar card, or used a cellphone during these years, said senior police officials, adding that “Vikramjeet did not even attend funerals of his parents, three elder brothers, and a sister”

The Gurugram police arrested a dacoity-cum-murder convict, who jumped parole in 1992 and had been on the run since then, from Ghaziabad’ Janakpuri in Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday, said officials on Thursday.

Vikramjeet alias Puttilal. (Sourced)

A Farrukhnagar crime branch team, headed by sub-inspector Amit Kumar, launched a probe in 2021 to trace the suspect -- identified as Vikramjeet alias Puttilal, 52, (goes by first name), a native of Sube ka Purva village in Uttar Pradesh’ Pratapgarh -- but to no avail.

The suspect did not have an Aadhaar card, or used a cellphone during these years, said senior police officials, adding that “Vikramjeet did not even attend funerals of his parents, three elder brothers, and a sister”.

According to police, a 14-year-old Vikramjeet came to Delhi with his father Vasudev in 1984 to earn livelihood, and started working at the Azadpur sabji mandi. On March 13, 1985, Vikramjeet and his five associates, however, robbed seven houses in Sanpka village of Gurugram’s Pataudi and escaped with Rs50,000.

Preet Pal Sangwan, assistant commissioner of police (crime), said, “All of them were armed with pistols, and one among the six suspects was earlier in the army. They even shot a villager dead during the dacoity. All the six suspects were arrested in April 1985 and given life imprisonment by a Gurugram court on March 23, 1989. Vikramjeet -- the only minor in the gang at the time of the robbery -- was granted parole in 1992 that he jumped and had been on the run since then.”

“Police struggled for several years to nab Vikramjeet as he had given incorrect information to them. After a long hunt... the Farrukhnagar crime branch team in 2021 started collecting data through human intelligence and questioning residents of several neighbouring villages mentioned by the suspect to police. During this, an 85-year-old woman, resident of Pratapgarh’s Kamapur in Uttar Pradesh -- native place of Vikramjeet’s wife -- could identify the suspect and shared personal details about him,” said Sangwan.

“After a strict lookout on the suspects’ relatives, and also scanning their phone call details for the past few years, police found out Vikramjeet’s niece in Mumbai made a phone call to a man in Ghaziabad, whose father’s name was Vikramjeet. Suspecting that he was Puttilal, police immediately traced the family and reached their house in Janakpuri on Tuesday,” according to Sangwan.

Vikramjeet, however, introduced himself to police as Ramu. “During a two-hour-long interrogation, had a breakdown and confessed to the crime. His family members were unaware of his truth,” said an officer, requesting anonymity. The officer also said that “Vikramjeet works at a rubber factory in the area, and has two sons and as many daughters”.