Latest news with #Banshi
Indian Express
06-07-2025
- Indian Express
Cabbie killer nabbed after 25 years: Associate's arrest in May gave vital clue, cops waited to nab accused during court visit
On July 5, a 49-year-old man was to appear in Patiala House court in connection with a 2021 case under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. A police team was lying in wait. They were unsure if he would show up until he did. Just as he left the court premises, the team swooped in and arrested him. He was no ordinary criminal — he was Ajay Lamba alias Banshi, a man they had been looking for 25 years after he allegedly robbed and killed four taxi drivers in Delhi and Uttarakhand between 1999 and 2001. According to police, the arrest of Banshi's associate Dhirender Singh Tomar (in connection with the murders) on May 25 gave them vital clues to renew their efforts to find him. Officers had questioned Tomar about the gang; he admitted that one of his associates was still on the run and disclosed Lamba's whereabouts in Dehradun. Police began tracking Lamba and, during their probe, unearthed the 2021 arrest and the court hearing. Following extensive manual and technical surveillance, a team led by Inspectors Rakesh Kumar and Anuj Kumar nabbed the accused. 'The accused, Ajay Lamba alias Banshi, was wanted in connection with a murder case registered at New Ashok Nagar police station in 2001,' said DCP (Crime Branch) Aditya Gautam. The DCP said Lamba used to live in Delhi's Krishna Nagar. Born in 1976, he dropped out of school after Class VI and allegedly took to crime in his early teens. Later, police said, he was declared a 'bad character' from Vikaspuri under the name 'Banshi'. He then changed his name to Ajay Lamba in 1996 and moved to UP's Bareilly. There, in collaboration with two other men — Tomar and Dilip Negi — police said he operated a lethal operation. A policeman said the gang members would target big cars like the Tata Sumo and Toyota Qualis. 'They would reach the taxi stand and ask the driver to take them to a specific location. On the way, they would drug him using chloroform, strangle him, and throw the body into a valley or sometimes a drain (depending on the location). The gang would then sell the stolen cars in Nepal,' the officer added. It was in 2001 that Delhi Police got a whiff of the gang's activities. On March 17 of that year, the New Ashok Nagar police station received a PCR call. The caller said two men were lying near a dump yard in Mayur Vihar III. They were shifted to a nearby hospital — one of them, a cab driver, died. Police registered a case and questioned the survivor. The survivor, who turned out to be a passenger in the deceased's shared cab, told police that four men had hired the taxi from Jaipur. He got into the cab on the way. When they got to Delhi, near the drain at New Ashok Nagar, they were attacked and lost consciousness. Police said the passenger and cab driver were strangled and thrown in the drain. Meanwhile, to evade arrest, police said Lamba moved to Nepal in 2008. 'He lived there for 10 years (till 2018) before shifting to Dehradun with his family. In 2020, he allegedly became involved in supplying marijuana from Odisha to other parts of India, including Delhi. In 2021, he was arrested in a case registered under the NDPS Act at Sagarpur police station in Delhi. In 2024, he was also arrested in a jewellery shop dacoity case in Brahmapur, Odisha. He was on bail in these cases,' DCP Gautam said. When asked why they didn't connect the dots during Lamba's 2021 arrest, police said there was a mismatch in his records, as he had changed both his name and his father's name on official identification documents. An official privy to the investigation further said, 'Besides, records in the Delhi Police were digitised around 2008-2009, so cases before that were not fed online. We suspect Lamba and his gang are involved in crimes in other districts too, but we know they committed crimes in Lohaghat, Almora, as murder cases are registered there.' Officers privy to the probe said apart from the New Ashok Nagar case, no bodies were found and the cars had not been recovered in the remaining cases. After Tomar's arrest, police began combing records and found that Lamba had been arrested in two cases recently. 'We saw that he had got out on bail in February 2025 in connection with the Odisha dacoity case… We got his address in Dehradun and a team was sent. Later, we scanned court documents and found he was scheduled to appear for a hearing on July 5 at Patiala House Court. Since he had not attended his other court hearings, we were not sure. A team waited for his arrival, and just when he was leaving the court premises, he was taken into custody,' the officer added. Officers privy to the case said the gang comprised four people: Lamba, Tomar, Dilip Negi, and Dheeraj. Negi was arrested between 2007 and 2008, convicted in 2010 for life, and is currently lodged in jail in Delhi. Tomar was arrested in 2001 and sent to jail. In 2007, he was convicted to life. In 2011, he applied for and was granted a month's parole but never returned. He was re-arrested on May 25. Dheeraj is yet to be arrested. Sakshi Chand is working as an Assistant Editor with the Indian Express. She has over a decade of experience in covering crime, prisons, traffic and human interest stories. She has also covered the communal clashes in Kasganj, Aligarh, Trilokpuri riots as well as the North-East Delhi riots. Apart from being a journalist, she is also a National level basketball player and a coach. Before joining the Indian Express, she was working for The Times of India. ... Read More
Mint
06-07-2025
- Mint
Serial killer who targeted taxi drivers, dumped bodies in remote forest areas, arrested by Delhi police after 25 years
A serial killer, who was on the run for around two-and-a-half decades, was arrested by the police in the national capital. The accused, identified as 49-year-old Ajay Lamba alias Banshi, was wanted in four brutal robbery-cum-murder cases lodged against him in Delhi, and Haldwani, Almora and Champawat districts of Uttarakhand. In all the cases, including a 2001 murder case registered at the New Ashok Nagar police station in Delhi, he was declared a proclaimed offender. According to the police, Lamba was the alleged mastermind behind a string of heinous crimes committed between 1999 and 2001, in which he, along with associates, targeted taxi drivers, killed them, looted their vehicles and dumped the bodies in remote forested areas of Uttarakhand to evade identification. "Born in 1976 and originally a resident of Delhi's Krishna Nagar, Ajay dropped out of school after Class 6 and became involved in crime at an early age. He was previously declared a 'Bad Character' by the Vikas Puri police under the alias 'Banshi'. In 1996, he changed his name to Ajay Lamba and shifted base to Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, where he teamed up with accomplices Dhirendra and Dilip Negi," Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Aditya Gautam said. Together, they operated a violent criminal enterprise in which they used to killed drivers after hiring taxis. Then the vehicles looted were resold across the Nepal border, he added. Lamba was arrested from Delhi in a coordinate operation, said the police. In the 1990s, he also faced charges such as theft and arms possession. The DCP further said from 2008 to 2018 he lived in Nepal with his family and later moved to Dehradun. In 2020, he became involved in narcotics smuggling, allegedly working in the ganja-supply network from Odisha to Delhi and other parts of India. He was also arrested in 2021 in a case under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act by the Sagarpur police and again in 2024 in connection with a jewellery-shop dacoity in Odisha's Berhampur. But, he was released on bail in both cases and never disclosed his fugitive status to anyone.
New Indian Express
02-07-2025
- New Indian Express
Two arrested for duping retired government employee
NEW DELHI: The Delhi Police has busted a gang involved in duping a retired government employee of Rs 14 lakh through a digital arrest scam and arrested two members who provided bank accounts to the fraudsters. Police received a complaint from the victim, who stated that he got a video call from a person posing as a Cyber Crime officer from Mumbai. The caller threatened him, claiming that his bank account was being used for fraud and that a team was on its way to arrest him. The panicked complainant, following the caller's instructions, transferred Rs 14 lakh into a bank account provided during the call. 'During the investigation, detailed technical analysis of call detail records of nearly 100 mobile numbers and IMEIs, along with a money trail involving several bank accounts, was carried out. The accused were traced to Barmer, Rajasthan. On June 15, a raid was conducted, and Banshi Lal and his associate Prem Kumar were apprehended,' said Deputy Commissioner of Police (North) Raja Banthia. Banshi revealed he had long known Kumar, a neighbour, who had asked him to open a bank account and hand over all net banking details and a linked mobile number. Kumar paid him Rs 8,000 for use of the account. 'Kumar disclosed that he provided Banshi's bank account details to Satpal Bishnoi who gave him Rs 15,000. Bishnoi used to get transferred cheated amounts in this account. Then, Kumar directed Banshi to withdraw cash from the bank through cheque. Thereafter, Kumar sent the withdrawal money to Bishnoi. The accused persons did not use the ATM to withdraw money in order to evade their identity in the CCTV cameras,' the DCP further said.
