Fugitive Convicted Killer Caught After 15 Years on the Run, Living Under Alias in UP

After evading capture for over 15 years, a man convicted of multiple murders was arrested by the Delhi Police Crime Branch on Saturday from Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh. The accused, Dhirender Singh Tomar, now 45, had been on the run since 2010 after jumping parole.

Police said Tomar, then 19, led a gang in 2001 that targeted taxi drivers in Uttarakhand and the NCR region. The group would hire taxis, murder the drivers, and steal the vehicles to sell them across the border in Nepal.

Tomar was first arrested in March 2001 in connection with a murder in Delhi’s Ashok Nagar. On March 17 that year, a PCR call reported two unconscious men in a Mayur Vihar dumping ground. One victim later died in hospital. The surviving victim told police that four men had attacked them during a cab ride from Jaipur to Delhi.

Tomar and an accomplice, Dilip Negi, were arrested soon after, while two others, Ajay and Dheeraj, were declared proclaimed offenders. Investigations revealed that the gang was involved in at least four murder cases, with FIRs registered in Almora, Haldwani, and Lohaghat in Uttarakhand.

In 2007, Tomar and Negi were convicted and sentenced to rigorous life imprisonment by the Karkardooma court. But on November 3, 2010, Tomar was released on a month-long parole — and never returned.

Since then, he had been living under a false identity as “Rajan Singh” in Bareilly’s Ekta Nagar with his wife, working as a driver for a relative. A Crime Branch team led by Inspector Rakesh Kumar, under ACP Umesh Barthwal, tracked him down after revisiting his last known address in Shahjahanpur and piecing together his new life.

“Once we learned he had assumed a new identity and was living in Bareilly, a trap was laid and he was arrested,” said DCP (Crime) Harsh Indora.

Tomar, a Class 12 graduate, originally hails from Shahjahanpur. Police say further investigation is underway to trace any recent activities or associates linked to him.