Delhi school boy kidnapping-murder case: One arrested from Maharashtra

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Another person has been arrested in connection with the kidnapping and killing of a school boy in south Delhi's Kalkaji in 2010, police said on Wednesday.

Gurnam Singh, who worked as a helper on a bus of the erstwhile Blueline service in Delhi, was arrested from Pune in Maharashtra, they said and added that he hails from Punjab's Hoshiarpur district and had changed his appearance after the incident to evade arrest.

Last week, Bharat Lal, a Blueline bus driver, was apprehended from Sheohar in Bihar in the August 2010 case, police said. To evade arrest, Lal had changed his last name and address in his identification documents, they added.

Police said Singh frequently changed places and did not contact his family, fearing he would be caught. Following the incident, he moved from Delhi to Punjab, then Assam and then to Maharashtra, they said. Special Commissioner of Police (Crime) Ravindra Singh Yadav said police received information about the second accused (Singh) and in order to trace him, a team travelled more than 5,000 kilometers within a week.

The accused had changed his appearance. He had grown his hair and beard and also started wearing a turban, he said.

"Based on our inputs, our team laid a trap in Pune and apprehended Gurnam Singh after nearly a 10-hour-long search operation carried out in a desolated mining area located in the rural side of Lonikand, Pune, Maharashtra," Yadav said.

The accused was working as a labourer in a stone crusher plant there, he added.

In her complaint, the boy's mother Indu Devi had said on August 27, 2010, her daughter received a phone call from bus conductor Mohammad Dilshad who said he had a school bag that belonged to Chandan and it could be collected from him.

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The complainant tried to contact the caller, but the mobile phone was found switched off. When her son Chandan alias 'Rahul' didn't return home, she lodged a missing person's report, police said.

Later, the boy's body was found on the railway tracks between Okhla and Tughlakabad railway stations. A kidnapping-cum-murder case was registered at the Kalkaji police station, they said.

During investigation, three accused were identified. They were staff of a Blueline bus and had assaulted the victim, police said, . All accused persons were evading their arrest and a reward of Rs 50,000 for the arrest of each of the accused was declared, they said.

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