South Delhi doctor murder case: Absconding for over a year, two held near India-Nepal border after 3,000-km chase
The two arrested accused have been identified as Pankaj Narjari (30), a resident of Sonitpur in Assam, and Prem Bahadur Nepali (42), a native of Chitwan district in Nepal.
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CCTV footage later revealed multiple suspects had entered the house before assaulting Dr Gupta and strangling him with one of his dog’s leashes.A 3,000-km chase that ended near the Dudhwa National Park along the India-Nepal border on Wednesday night led to the arrest of two men accused of plotting a doctor’s murder in South East Delhi’s Jangpura Extension last year. According to the Delhi Police’s Crime Branch, one of the accused was carrying a bounty of Rs 50,000 for allegedly killing the doctor as his co-conspirators carried out a dacoity in the house.
The two arrested accused have been identified as Pankaj Narjari (30), a resident of Sonitpur in Assam, and Prem Bahadur Nepali (42), a native of Chitwan district in Nepal. They had been absconding for over a year. Both were declared proclaimed offenders in earlier cases and had managed to evade arrest by frequently crossing into Nepal after committing crimes in India, said police.
Last year, on May 10, Dr Neena Gupta found her husband, Dr Yogesh Chander Paul, a 63-year-old general physician, strangled in the kitchen of their house after she returned from work in the evening. The house had been allegedly ransacked, and valuables were missing. Their two dogs were found barking behind the locked door of their bathroom.
CCTV footage later revealed multiple suspects had entered the house before assaulting Dr Gupta and strangling him with one of his dog’s leashes.
Further investigation found that the victim’s domestic worker, Basanti, who had worked for the couple for the last 24 years, had allegedly passed information about cash and jewellery in the house to other accused who plotted the robbery and murder, said officers.
Following Basanti’s tip-off, Vishnuswaroop, one of the accused, allegedly planned the robbery with his associates and brought in Prem Bahadur to implement the plot.
Prem, in turn, introduced Narjari into the plan. The gang conducted multiple rounds of reconnaissance before executing the crime, said police.
On the day of the murder, Narjari and others tied and strangled Dr Paul before looting his house. Several accused, including Basanti, Vishnuswaroop, and two men identified as Himanshu and Akash, were arrested earlier, but Narjari and Prem Bahadur remained on the run.
A Crime Branch team led by Inspector Pankaj Thakran acted on the information from a manual tip-off and pursued leads across Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. After days of surveillance, the team intercepted the two near the Dhangadhi border in Nepal.
“Most of the accused are of Nepalese origin and have formed a gang of house burglars operating in different states like Uttrakhand, UP, Bihar, and Delhi. They deploy Nepalese women as maids in households to gather information about cash, jewellery, and family details. Their prime targets are senior citizens living alone. After committing robbery, they leave India and mostly hide in Nepal,” said DCP Crime Branch Harsh Indora. Police sources added that the accused were involved in cyber frauds during the time they spent in Nepal to earn money and were wanted criminals in the neighbouring countries too.
According to police, Narjari had earlier been arrested in a 2016 Mayapuri robbery case but jumped bail. Prem Bahadur had a string of cases against him, including robbery and burglary in Delhi, dating back to 2007. Officials said two other accused carrying similar rewards remain at large.
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