On run for 25 years, murder convict held in southwest Delhi

The Delhi Police has arrested a man convicted of murdering his wife, who had been on the run for 25 years after jumping parole, an official said.

The accused, Yoginder Singh (58), was convicted in 1997 and sentenced to life imprisonment for strangling his wife to death in 1992. He was released on parole for four weeks in June 2000, but failed to surrender and remained on the run.

Police said that the accused was apprehended by a team from Ludhiana in Punjab. Singh had been living under an assumed identity, having changed his name, father’s name and residential address and had procured fresh identity documents to evade arrest.

“Yoginder had moved across several states — Himachal Pradesh, West Bengal, Bihar and Karnataka — before settling in Ludhiana in 2012, where he worked as a carpenter and blended into the local population by learning Punjabi,” said the police officer.

According to police, the case dates back to March 15, 1992, when information was received about the murder of a woman at the Pillangi village in southwest Delhi.

A court convicted Yoginder in March 1997 and awarded life imprisonment. His appeal was later dismissed by the Delhi High Court in 2010, and he was declared a proclaimed offender.