April 24,2018:

Famous Five of Delhi police and colleagues call them the “star catchers”, five Assistant Sub-Inspectors (ASI) who have caught almost 500 proclaimed offenders in 2017, more than one-fourth of what the entire force managed that year.

Among the five, posted in different locations, ASI Rajesh Kumar Pahal of Punjabi Bagh police station topped the list with 129.

In all, he claims to have nabbed around 1,500 proclaimed offenders since 2008, the year he became part of a team assigned to catch fugitive criminals. The squad was led by now-retired Inspector Joginder Singh, who caught more than 3,500 proclaimed offenders in 39 years.

Pahal joined the force in 1993 and worked as a driver in police stations. Between 1998 and 2007, he drove official Gypsys of the station house officers of Daryaganj and Paschim Vihar police stations.

Pahal accompanied them in several operations to catch proclaimed offenders. “The working style and dedication of those officers made them favourites of their seniors. This impressed and inspired me and I decided to be like them,” he said.

The opportunity came in 2008 when inspector Singh put him on the trail of a fugitive named Virender Singh from Haryana’s Bahadurgarh, a bus driver hiding for almost 25 years after he ran over a man in old Delhi in 1983 and fled. The man died and a court declared Virender a proclaimed offender.

Pahal worked his intelligence network and learned that Virender had returned to his village after many years and was looking for a job desperately.

Pahal disguised as a transporter, went to his home and told the fugitive’s wife that he was looking to hire an honest and trustworthy truck driver. “She asked me to wait but I left, giving her my contact number,” he said.

Virender called two days later and sought to meet at a bus stop on Jhajjar road. When he arrived in an auto-rickshaw, a police team was waiting for him. “Virender was the first proclaimed offender I caught. He was carrying a reward of Rs 5,000,” Pahal said.

 

ASI Bhagwan Singh of Jamia Nagar police station caught 107 fugitives last year, followed by 100 by ASI Naresh Rana of Alipur police station, and 86 and 76 each by ASI Krishan Kumar Yadav of Sangam Vihar and Jagat Singh Jatav of Palam Village police station.

Rana, the eldest and most experienced among the five, caught 98-year-old Rajrani this New Year’s Day.

She was declared a proclaimed offender 15 years ago after she jumped bail in a bootlegging case.

“She was 81 when she was arrested by Uttam Nagar police for allegedly selling illicit liquor. She got bail and never went to court for the trial. The Tis Hazari courts declared her a proclaimed offender in 2003,” he said.

In the meantime, Rajrani left her Uttam Nagar house. “The house was sold five times thereafter. The only clue available was her name and that of her husband, Deshraj,” Rana said.

He scanned Delhi’s voters list on the Election Commission website and found at least 50 Rajranis with Deshraj as the spouses’ name. Rana put her tentative age and the list narrowed down to two.

“One of the addresses was Dal Mill Road in Uttam Nagar. I visited the house and met Rajrani, who was fit for her age and walked without help. She was with her 76-year-old son,” Rana said.

Rana produced her in court that day itself. “The judge was surprised. The court released her with a fine considering her old age,” he said.

Each one of these five ASIs is a repository of gripping stories of surveillance, stakeouts and stealth to track down fugitives. ASI Jakhar posed as a farmer to arrest a suspected rapist, Zafaryab, who was declared a proclaimed offender in 2013.

 

 

Source Hindustan Times

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