Delhi Police nab 'contract killer' from dense forest of Chhattisgarh-Jharkhand

New Delhi: Delhi Police have arrested an alleged contract killer who had absconded in a murder case of 2013, officials said on Saturday.
Raju Banarsi alias Raju Singh, a resident of Palamu, Jharkhand was arrested by a team of Inter State Cell of Crime Branch, said the police. The accused was arrested from the dense forest of Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand border, they said.
According to the police, he carried a bounty of Rs 50,000.
Despite the best efforts of the police, he had been evading his arrest by hiding himself in forest areas of Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, said the police.
According to the police, Raju was among the six accused who had committed the contract killing on the directions of the deceased's brother named Rajesh Singh Lamba.
The accused persons were provided a sum of Rs 10 lakh for contract killing. The motive behind the contract killing was a property dispute between the deceased and his brother. The entire conspiracy was hatched and in order to execute the same one pistol and one country made pistol were provided by the accused Raju Banarsi, said the police.
On the day of execution of murder, the accused Raju Banarsi was tasked to give backup and an easy escape route to his co-accused who opened fire on the deceased Jitender Lamba.
After committing the crime all the accused persons fled but later on at different intervals of time all the accused persons got arrested with the exception of Raju Banarsi who remained at large. Later, he was declared proclaimed offender by the court, said the police.
As the case was quite old, therefore, all the previous mobile numbers of the accused were either found switched off or allotted to other users.
Despite the multiple setbacks and without any proper lead, the police team relentlessly worked and after analysing hundreds of mobile numbers of last 10 years contact of arrested accused persons as well as their friends, finally the team found active mobile numbers of his distant relative in Jharkhand, said the police.
Again, on further analysis, one mobile number was finally found whose activity was highly suspicious, as it was only operational for a few minutes in a day. The location of the number was constantly shown in the forest area of Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand border.
The finding of this mobile number was like finding a needle in the haystack and this mobile number paved the way for further search of the accused. The team reached the location and started labour work with the local labourers to get access to the forest area smoothly as it is difficult to find the person in such dense forest.
During this, the team developed their sources and laid a tactful and strategic trap which finally succeeded to zero down and nab the accused person who was driving a truck in the jungle area, said the police.