Murder accused evading arrest since 2018 held in southwest Delhi

The accused has been identified as Om, a resident of Bahadurgarh in Haryana’s Jhajjar. He was accused of killing another man -- Abhinav Verma -- inside his shop in 2014, they said.

The Delhi Police has arrested a 28-year-old man from southwest Delhi’s Najafgarh who was allegedly evading arrest since December 2018, after jumping parole in a murder case, officials said on Wednesday.

During interrogation, Om told the police that he wanted to take revenge from a person named Monu, who had hired him in 2014 to kill Abhinav Verma. (HT file photo)

The accused has been identified as Om, a resident of Bahadurgarh in Haryana’s Jhajjar. He was accused of killing another man -- Abhinav Verma -- inside his shop in 2014, they said. The murder case was registered against him at Palam police station. He was evading arrest since December 2018 after jumping parole and was carrying a reward of Rs 25,000, police said.

Since then, he was involved in three cases of car-jacking in Delhi and Haryana. He was arrested on Tuesday night by a Crime branch team lead by Inspector Yashpal Singh after receiving a tip-off that he would come to the Najafgarh area to kill another person. A country-made pistol along with two live rounds were found in his possession, a senior police officer said.

During interrogation, Om told the police that he wanted to take revenge from a person named Monu, who had hired him in 2014 to kill Abhinav Verma. Monu had promised to pay Rs 20 lakhs for killing Verma but did not pay Om nor did he help in getting him out on parole. The accused told the police that Monu had also assured him that he would hire a lawyer for him and get his parole extended. But Monu, who was also arrested in connection with Verma’‘s killing, managed to get bail but did not help Om. Om felt cheated and to take revenge, he had decided to kill Monu, police said. A case under Arms Act has been registered against him, the police, said adding further investigation is underway.