Delhi Police arrests 2 life convicts who evaded jail for decade

The Delhi Police has arrested two absconding brothers who were sentenced to life imprisonment in a murder case and had been evading arrest for nearly a decade, an official said on Tuesday.

The accused, Firasat Ali (56) and Shah Nawaz Ali (51), were apprehended in coordinated operations from Moradabad in Uttar Pradesh and Godda in Jharkhand, respectively, the officer said.

The brothers were convicted in a 1996 murder case registered at Rajouri Garden police station in Delhi and were sentenced to life imprisonment by a Delhi court in 2000, a senior police officer said.

They were later granted bail during the pendency of their appeal before the Delhi High Court. “However, after the High Court upheld their conviction on May 12, 2016, and directed them to surrender to serve the remaining sentence, both absconded instead of returning to jail,” the officer added.

Firasat was also a proclaimed offender in a 2006 Mumbai contract killing case in which a man was allegedly murdered for Rs 2 lakh at the behest of his wife, and his body was dismembered to conceal his identity. He was arrested by the Mumbai Police in 2018, but was granted bail in that case.

Later, he obtained a two-week furlough in the Delhi murder case in 2023 but failed to surrender before jail authorities, police said.

Shah Nawaz had remained on the run since 2016 after the dismissal of his appeal, he added.

The Delhi murder case dates back to September 27, 1996, when an argument over the purchase of an old saree at a second-hand clothes market in Raghubir Nagar escalated into a violent attack later the same day.

“Shah Nawaz, along with Firasat and two associates, barged into the complainant’s house armed with knives and fatally stabbed Ishtiaq Ahmed alias Pappu, while two other family members sustained injuries,” the police officer said.

The four accused were arrested during the investigation and later convicted. In the Mumbai case, police had recovered an unidentified human torso wrapped in a plastic bag near Bhindi Bazaar in May 2006. The victim’s head and limbs had been severed and disposed of separately to prevent identification.

“The case remained unsolved for over a decade before investigators identified the victim as Kisan Kharva in 2018. Police alleged that his wife had hired Firasat and another associate to kill him for Rs 2 lakh due to persistent domestic abuse and suspicion over her character,” the officer said.

According to the police, Firasat allegedly murdered Kharva, dismembered the body and dumped the remains at different locations before absconding after securing bail from the Bombay High Court in 2021. He was subsequently declared a proclaimed offender.

“The brothers had been frequently changing locations across Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana while working as clothes merchants to avoid detection. Both accused have been lodged in Tihar Jail. The Mumbai Police has also been informed about Firasat’s arrest in connection with the contract killing case,” the officer said.