Panchkula murder accused arrested in Bengaluru; police probe Assam killing link

A man wanted in two criminal cases, including the murder of a watchman in Panchkula and his elder brother in Assam, has been arrested from Bengaluru.

The accused, Tepong Rabha alias Rakesh Rabha, a resident of Kokrajhar district in Assam, kept changing his identity and hideouts across six states to evade the police.

He was produced before a Panchkula court, which remanded him to two days of police custody for the recovery of the alleged murder weapon and the victim’s mobile phone.

According to Sector 10 police officials, the blood-stained body of Dan Bahadur, a resident of Nepal working as a watchman at an under-construction house in Sector 11, was found on the building’s roof on the morning of May 28.

Police and a forensic team reached the spot and launched an investigation. It was found that a labourer, Rakesh, had bludgeoned the watchman with an iron rod and a hammer to death. The accused had fled after committing the crime.

Police later found out that Rabha had allegedly murdered his elder brother in Assam about three months earlier and was already wanted in that case.

After the murder in Assam, the accused moved through Srinagar, Haryana, Delhi, Kerala and Karnataka. He allegedly stole a mobile phone every four to five days, inserted a new SIM card and later sold the handset to avoid being tracked.

Police said he worked as a waiter in hotels and roadside eateries while using fake names and addresses and frequently changing his hideouts.

After continuous technical surveillance, a police team traced him to Bengaluru on June 30. Following searches at several locations, the team arrested him from a hotel and brought him to Panchkula after obtaining transit remand from a local court.

During the police remand, police plan to recover the victim’s mobile phone from Delhi, and the iron rod allegedly used in the Panchkula murder.