The accused, Sandeep Kumar Dhillo, is involved in 22 cases of murder, extortion, dacoity and in cases under MCOCA. (Representational Image)
A 42-year-old murder convict, who escaped police custody two years ago from Maulana Azad Medical College, was arrested by Delhi Police from West Bengal’s Siliguri Wednesday. The accused, Sandeep Kumar Dhillo, is involved in 22 cases of murder, extortion, dacoity and in cases under MCOCA.
In February 2018, he fled from police custody when he was brought for a dental check-up to the hospital. As police personnel were taking him back to their van, five bike-borne men attacked them, threw chilli powder in their eyes and opened fire. Dhillo’s associates freed him and fled on their bikes. A senior police officer told The Indian Express in 2018 that Dhillo planned the escape from Mandoli Jail with two of his associates.
Delhi Police’s Special Cell sent out teams to search for the accused. DCP (Special Cell) Pramod Singh Kushwah, said the teams led by Inspector Aditya Singh tried to track Dhillo’s location several times, but he managed to evade them. Dhillo was changing hideouts frequently and used dongles and virtual private network s (VPN). “It becomes difficult to trace VPN as it’s a secure connection. Hackers use VPN to hide their browsing history and access restricted or blocked websites.” said an officer.
Kushwah said in June this year, his team found Dhillo was hiding in Rajasthan or UP: “We sent teams to Rajasthan, but he had escaped. On July 5, we were informed he was hiding in Siliguri. A team lead by Inspector Umesh Barthwal, and ACP Lalit Mohan Negi went there and caught him three days later from a market.”