Up 1,000 in 3 years,list of proclaimed offenders grows

In some cases,the accused simply vanished. For example,Sunil Kumar,a teacher accused of kidnapping two of his girl students in 2007. In August,on the day final arguments were heard in the court,he vanished. He had been out on bail.

Similarly,two of the three accused in the sensational Kajheri triple murder case in May 2007 haven’t been traced yet. Of the three accused servants — Rajiv,Amit Kunkun and Santosh — only Rajiv has been arrested for allegedly killing an elderly couple.

“The two were declared proclaimed offenders in 2007. The police had even announced a reward of Rs 1.5 lakh,but they are yet to be traced,” Inderjeet Bassi,defence advocate in the case,said.

The case,meanwhile,has reached the final stage in court.

Compared to their growing tribe,arrests of these POs have been few and far between. Of the 468 people declared POs this year,only 123 have been arrested.

Some of these offenders are absconding for more than 15 years.

A majority of POs are wanted in cases related to cheating,forgery,theft,robbery,gambling and under the Excise Act.

“We need more staff to arrest proclaimed offenders,” head constable Des Raj,accredited with nabbing more than 460 proclaimed offenders,said. “But the police have been making efforts to nab them.”

“Majority of the proclaimed offenders are from outside the city,and a separate team has been constituted to nab them,” UT SSP S S Srivastava said. “We follow all cases and make considerable number of arrests from time to time.”