Wanted criminal nabbed following encounter

A man was arrested early Tuesday morning following an encounter in Sector 82, the police said, adding that he was wanted in a murder case.

A man was arrested early Tuesday morning following an encounter in Sector 82, the police said, adding that he was wanted in a murder case.

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The suspect in his early thirties has been identified as Rinku aka Ranjeet Tomar, a native of Meerut, who was carrying a reward of ₹25,000 on his head, the police said.

Ranjeet was arrested by the Sector 39 police.

According to police officials, Ranjeet and his accomplice were on a motorcycle when they were stopped for checking near Sector 82 service road.

“However, they tried to flee. When a police team followed, they fired on them. In the retaliatory firing, Ranjeet was injured in his leg while his accomplice managed to flee. A search is on for him,” said Kumar Ranvijay Singh, additional deputy commissioner of police, Zone 1.

The suspect was sent to the district hospital for treatment. Later, when he was questioned, it was found that he was wanted in a 2019 murder case, the police said.

In June last year, a missing person’s complaint had been filed at Sector 39 police station of a man named Saurabh Tomar. It was later converted into a kidnapping case which eventually became a murder case in which six people were booked, the police said. Five of them, including Ranjeet’s wife, had been arrested last year while Ranjeet, the prime suspect, had been at large, they said.

The police officials said that Ranjeet and Saurabh were friends. However, Ranjeet alleged that Saurabh showed undue interest in his wife and even threatened him following which he, along with his friends and relatives, hatched the plan to kill him. Saurabh’s body was disposed in a drain in Meerut, said the police.

A stolen motorcycle and a countrymade pistol were recovered from the suspect. He has several criminal cases, including robbery and attempt to murder, registered against him going as back as 2015 and was also wanted under the gangster act, the police said.