New Delhi: A manhunt culminated in the arrest of a double murder convict who was on the run for over five years. In 2007, Ashok murdered a pregnant woman and her two-year-old son in a cold-blooded act of revenge. Convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in 2016, Ashok’s fate seemed sealed. However, he managed to escape while on parole in 2020.A police team recently tracked Ashok’s digital footprints and gathered intelligence from informers. “After months of investigation, the team finally tracked down Ashok to his hideout in Uttar Pradesh,” said DCP (crime branch) Sanjeev Yadav.On June 1, 2007, Ashok and his associates opened fire at his brother-in-law, Baleshwar, and his pregnant girlfriend, Sarita, and her two-year-old son, Abhishek, in northeast Delhi’s Khajuri Khas. While Baleshwar narrowly escaped, Sarita and her son succumbed to the gunshot injuries.Ashok was arrested and subsequently convicted in Nov 2016. The court also imposed a Rs 3-lakh fine on him. Ashok’s appeal against the verdict was dismissed by Delhi high Court in Sept 2019.On Feb 2, 2020, he was granted two weeks’ parole by the high court following the death of his mother. However, he didn’t surrender after the parole period ended. Police started looking for him,but he managed to stay underground.A team of inspectors Mangesh Tyagi and Robin Tyagi recently tracked Ashok down to Sikandrabad in Uttar Pradesh, where he was hiding on the outskirts of the town. A team of 15 personnel conducted a month-long operation, using advanced technical surveillance and human intelligence inputs to pinpoint his location. The final raid was carried out with the assistance of the local Sikandrabad police, leading to Ashok’s arrest.Ashok said he was living in temporary structures in agricultural fields and avoiding mobile phones to evade detection, said DCP Yadav. “He also disconnected himself from his family members and was living in remote locations in several states, including Gujarat, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh,” Yadav added. He never slept at night in a particular place twice and randomly selected a location every day, police said.
