The Delhi Police nabbed a “most wanted criminal” from Madhya Pradesh’s Jabalpur, five years after he jumped parole, officials said on Sunday.
Vijay Pajalwan, 52, is named in 24 cases including murder, attempt to murder, sexual harassment and other cases related to criminal conspiracy, theft, criminal intimidation and the Arms Act across Delhi, Haryana, Gujarat and Maharashtra. A reward of Rs 2 lakh was announced on information leading to his arrest, officials said.
Pahalwan had jumped his parole of two days in April 2018.
Special Commissioner of Police (Crime) RS Yadav said a team of the Crime Branch was tasked with finding and arresting people accused in cases of heinous crimes and were on the run.
After tracing Pahalwan’s location, a special team was dispatched to Jabalpur to arrest him.
“In 2011, he (Pahalwan) had murdered Raghuvir Singh (69) after abducting him from the Kishangarh area of Delhi. He took the victim to the Andheri Mor area in Delhi where he asked him to give his plot. When the victim refused, he shot him and dumped his body in a forest area near DLF Phase-II in Gurugram,” Yadav said.
After evading the police in 2018, the accused started working at a ‘pehalwani akhara’ in Kolhapur, Maharashtra using the name, ‘Vikram Singh’.
He met a woman during his stay there, and after two years, moved to Raipur in Chhattisgarh, where he started a property business, the officials noted.
He stayed in Raipur for two years and then moved to Madhya Praesh’s Jabalpur and started a property business there.
“For the last year, he was running his property business in Jabalpur. He used to buy land, villas and farms, and sell these at higher prices, earning huge profits. He has a farmhouse in the Jabalpur area, wherein, he had employed 14 people,” said the special commissioner of police.
Yadav further said that Pahalwan had employed four armed bodyguards for his protection. “He has two sons and both are lawyers, who indulged in ‘pairvi’ of criminal cases registered against him,” the officer added.
(With PTI inputs)