Assam man wanted for Panchkula murder held from Bengaluru
Accused changed SIMs by stealing cellphones every 4 to 5 days
The police have arrested a wanted criminal who allegedly killed his elder brother in Assam before murdering a watchman in Panchkula and fleeing to Bengaluru.
The accused, Tepong Rabha, alias Rakesh Rabha, a resident of Assam’s Kokrajhar district, allegedly changed his identity and hideouts across six states to evade arrest.
According to Sector-10 police officials, on the morning of May 28, they received information that the blood-stained body of a man was lying on the roof of an under-construction house in Sector 11. A police team rushed to the spot and identified the deceased as Dan Bahadur, a Nepal resident employed as the watchman at the construction site.
An investigation revealed that a labourer identified as Rakesh allegedly bludgeoned the watchman to death with an iron rod before fleeing the scene.
During the probe, the police discovered that the accused was already wanted in Assam for allegedly murdering his elder brother nearly three months earlier.
After the Assam murder, the accused allegedly travelled through Srinagar, Haryana, Delhi, Kerala and finally Karnataka to avoid arrest. The police said he stole a mobile phone every four to five days, inserted a new SIM card, and later sold the handset to avoid being tracked. He also worked as a waiter at hotels and roadside eateries while using fake names and addresses and frequently changing his location.
Following sustained technical surveillance, a police team reached Bengaluru on June 30. After searching multiple locations, the accused was arrested from a hotel. He was brought to Panchkula on transit remand obtained from a local court.
The accused was produced before a Panchkula court, which remanded him to two days of police custody. During the remand, the police plan to recover the victim’s mobile phone from Delhi and the iron rod allegedly used in the murder.
