8 yrs after killing girlfriend, man lands in police dragnet

A man accused of killing his girlfriend eight years ago after she refused to marry him has been arrested from the India-Nepal border, the police said on Monday.

The accused, identified as Arjun Kumar (31), alias Bhola, a resident of Bihar’s Chhapra district, was carrying also a reward of Rs 1 lakh, they added.

According to the police, Pappu Singh, a resident of New Ashok Nagar, lodged a complaint about the abduction of his daughter on November 17, 2017.

The woman’s body was later recovered from the rented accommodation of the accused in New Ashok Nagar.

After escaping, Arjun also got involved in another heinous crime in Nepal. His friend Nausad, a resident of Nepal, was in a relationship with a married woman, which was strongly opposed by her family members. Kumar murdered the woman’s mother for which he was sentenced to prison for 25 years there, the police said.

“Arjun developed a relationship with the victim, who lived in the same building as his family in New Ashok Nagar. When she refused to marry him and her family fixed her marriage elsewhere, he allegedly killed her, locked the rented room where the crime was committed and fled,” DCP (Crime Branch) Harsh Indora said.

Accordingly, a murder case was registered and Kumar was declared a proclaimed offender after he absconded. Despite extensive searches, Kumar could not be traced for years, the officer said.

“During the recent unrest in Nepal, there was a jailbreak during which Arjun managed to escape. After intelligence was received that he was attempting to cross over to India and go to his native place in Bihar, a team was strategically deployed on the border, which arrested him from Raxaul,” the DCP said.

Arjun, who studied till Class 5, had been working in Delhi before the 2017 murder. He had a violent streak and repeated his crime pattern in Nepal, the officer said.